How To HOW TO: Search the Market effectively using operators

[spectrrr]

It seems that while the number one complaint about the Market is how difficult it is to search, many people do not realize how easy and helpful it is to use the minus sign when searching the market for things.

It's really very simple. Type what you want, and then use a -something to exclude what you don't want. FOR EXAMPLE:

"ahome" returns 522 results.

"ahome -theme" returns 38 results, mostly fonts and widgets.

THATS IT!!! I think you can figure out the many implementations of it from there, just remember to use a -shityoudontwant next time you have to search!

 

[bthoward]

What I'd still like to see added is the ability to sort my results based on price, number of downloads, rating, release date and things of that nature once I've gotten things down to a reasonable dataset.

 

[johnlgalt]

It seems that while the number one complaint about the Market is how difficult it is to search, many people do not realize how easy and helpful it is to use the minus sign when searching the market for things.

It's really very simple. Type what you want, and then use a -something to exclude what you don't want. FOR EXAMPLE:

"ahome" returns 522 results.

"ahome -theme" returns 38 results, mostly fonts and widgets.

THATS IT!!! I think you can figure out the many implementations of it from there, just remember to use a -shityoudontwant next time you have to search!

Yeah, I and a few others have noticed this and posted about it - but you're the first to make a new post about it

Cheers!

 

[spectrrr]

What I'd still like to see added is the ability to sort my results based on price, number of downloads, rating, release date and things of that nature once I've gotten things down to a reasonable dataset.

Absolutely agreed. The market search, particularly coming from GOOGLE, is pathetic.

Yeah, I and a few others have noticed this and posted about it - but you're the first to make a new post about it
Cheers!

YEP! I've posted it a few times in other threads too... finally got tired of answer the same question ad nausium, so figured I would start a thread

 

[johnlgalt]

I'll post what I did in another post (this one after you again) here as well:

It's not just a - that can be used - it supports most of the Google Search advanced search tools:

to find all these words: Just type the words (e.g. Raging Bull - finds all occurrences of Raging and Bull, whether together or not)

To find an exact phrase or wording: Use quotation marks (e.g. "Raging Bull" - finds all occurrences of the phrase Raging Bull, exactly as typed in the quotation marks)

To exclude words: Use a - (minus sign). (e.g. Raging Bull -bullhorn - finds all occurrences of Raging or Bull but excludes any that include occurrences of bullhorn)

 

[bthoward]

now if we could only get regular expressions support!

 

[johnlgalt]

I know, right?

But that would make it a bit too geeky for the non-geek crowd that Google is trying to entice to buy their phones....

 

[spectrrr]

lmao, yeah... well, how about an "advanced search" function, that's basically an idiots GUI for basic regular expressions.

 

[johnlgalt]

That would be very beneficial.

I found a much better reference for the operators:

More search help : Google search basics - Web Search Help (straight from the horse's mouth)

Google search - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (my favorite - less verbose and more succinct)