❝ Searching Scratch - Users, Forums, Wiki, and More! ❞

customhacker

Ever wonder how to Search on Scratch without the Search bar? Feel that is is too constricting? You can't search for what you like? This guide has the answer! In this guide you will learn how to search different things in Scratch through Google, and how to amplify your search results!

Click on each link below which will take you to a section about the topic you would like to learn about!

Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 20:19:15)

customhacker

Users

The current search engine will only show a user if they have made a project, or mentioned somewhere else on the Scratch Website,
such as a project description. This can be annoying when you just want a link to a user's profile even if it they have no projects.

One way to do this is to use the Google search bar or another search engines' bar. First off navigate to the home page or to the search bar at the top of your screen. You can type in the following code:

site: scratch.mit.edu/users/ YOUR USER SEARCH TERM

This will tell Google to only search for YOUR USER SEARCH TERM in the Scratch domain. If you only put YOUR USER SEARCH TERM and look for that, the results will appear from anywhere in the WHOLE WIDE WEB - and that can be painful to sort through. Here is a statistic: Randomly searching for griffpatch pulls up 89,400 results on Google. What about when you do that in the URL Identifier? 39,300 results! That is about 44% of what you had the first time.

If the URL Identifier didn't pull up what you wanted, you can look further on how to amplify your search, that you can visit the “Amplifying Searches” Section. Keep in mind that you can do this for any section just by replacing “users” with something such as “discuss”, “project”, or “studio” to bring those up.

| Main Menu |

Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 00:34:25)

customhacker

Forums

The current search engine does not allow for searching of the forums. This means that you cannot see topics in Scratch, and makes it harder to find duplicates. So how do you solve this problem?

One way to do this is to use the Google search bar or another search engines' bar. First off navigate to the home page or to the search bar at the top of your screen. You can type in the following code:

site: scratch.mit.edu/discuss/ YOUR FORUM SEARCH TERM

This will tell Google to only search for YOUR FORUM SEARCH TERM in the Scratch domain. If you only put YOUR FORUM SEARCH TERM and look for that, the results will appear from anywhere in the WHOLE WIDE WEB - and that can be painful to sort through. Here is a statistic: Randomly searching for Becoming a Scratcher pulls up 360,000 results on Google. What about when you do that in the URL Identifier? 191,000 results! That is about 53% of what you had the first time.

If the URL Identifier didn't pull up what you wanted, you can look further on how to amplify your search, that you can visit the “Amplifying Searches” Section. Keep in mind that you can do this for any section just by replacing “discuss” with something such as “user”, “project”, or “studio” to bring those up.

| Main Menu |

Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 00:39:32)

customhacker

Custom Search Engines

What if you don't want to type in all the URL information into the search bar, and just want something functioning to bring results immediately? Well I have designed multiple Search Engines for you to use. All you have to do is bookmark them and open them when you need them.
The following are a list of them:

Forum Search Engine

https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=014308377741969286645:kbiwwujo_li

This can be used to search up any forum topics for any forum.

Scratch Search Engine

https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=014308377741969286645:y5my6-nxzmw

This can be used to search up anything on Scratch or the Wiki

| Main Menu |

Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 01:30:03)

customhacker

Amplifying Searches

Want pro-tips on amplifying your searches? You came to the right place! Here we have a list of all the tips we could find. These don't have to be used only for Scratch! (These work for Google, though some may work on other browsers.)

How to Search

Keywords - The keywords that you use should be to the point. You want to use words that will most likely be in the place you are looking for.

Spelling - Spelling is autocorrected to the most common spelling, so wont affect your results much if you make a minor error.

Capitalisation - Capitals registers the same on Google whether you type uppercase or lowercase.

Weather - Type in “weather” to see the weather for your location.

Dictionary - Put “define” in front of a word to see its definition.

Math - Enter an expression for it to be solved. Graphs can also be displayed.

Conversions - Entering most conversions can have them be solved.

Sports - Search your team to see scores & schedules.

Refining

@ - Place @ in front of a word to search it on social media.

$ - Place a $ in front of a number to see a price.

# - #useahashtagtosearchhashtags

- - Use a negative sign ( - ) in front of a search term to eliminate it.

“” - Place a word in “” to search for exact matches.

* - Use a * for a place holder.

X ..Y - Place .. between two numbers for a range.

or - Place “or” to combine two searches.

site: - Place “site:” to search in a specific domain.

related: - Place “related:” to search something related to a site.

info: - Place “info:” to get information about a site.

cache: - Place “cache:” to see Google's cached version of the site.

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Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 01:36:58)

customhacker

Other Guides by customhacker

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Last edited by customhacker (June 9, 2017 01:29:23)

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KingOfAwesome58219

The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

customhacker

KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.

KingOfAwesome58219

customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.

It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Last edited by KingOfAwesome58219 (June 9, 2017 02:40:13)

customhacker

KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.
It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Which links are hard to see? The Main Menu ones are all big.

KingOfAwesome58219

customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.
It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Which links are hard to see? The Main Menu ones are all big.

Are the main menu ones the only links? Oh. Yeah you don't really need to make a change there. I'm inclined to try and click on everything

customhacker

KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.
It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Which links are hard to see? The Main Menu ones are all big.
Are the main menu ones the only links? Oh. Yeah you don't really need to make a change there. I'm inclined to try and click on everything

Would you like a cookie then? You can click that and earn money!

KingOfAwesome58219

customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.
It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Which links are hard to see? The Main Menu ones are all big.
Are the main menu ones the only links? Oh. Yeah you don't really need to make a change there. I'm inclined to try and click on everything

Would you like a cookie then? You can click that and earn money!

I prefer other scratch clicker parodies

WolfCat67

KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
customhacker wrote:
KingOfAwesome58219 wrote:
The blue text makes it really hard to tell what's a link and what's not, probably worth changing. Other than that, great guide!

There are not many links that are in there, but thanks for the feedback! It was blue because it fits with the theme.
It does look nice, not gonna lie. How about an underline on links or really any other intuitive indicator?

Which links are hard to see? The Main Menu ones are all big.
Are the main menu ones the only links? Oh. Yeah you don't really need to make a change there. I'm inclined to try and click on everything

Would you like a cookie then? You can click that and earn money!
I prefer other scratch clicker parodies

Maybe change the text to be a dark blue or dark cyan instead?

Paddle2See

Awesome guide - very useful!

I did find the text color a bit confusing - since that is the same color that my browser uses for hyperlinks. It might just be a problem for me though - I can't remember if I customized that setting.

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