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Is there a plan for a more convenient way to save advanced search criteria in Stack Overflow?

It would be really convenient to add and remove the saved criteria in a nearly identical way to the favorite tags. For example, I could type the following in a favorite searches TextBox and add as a favorite:

[wpf] closed:no wiki:no

And when I click on that favorite (Button), I can add additional criteria to it in the search bar.

Edit: I would like to hear a good reason (if there is one), why saved searches isn't a good idea, whereas favorite tags are. For example, if the above is stored as a favorite, the home page could highlight wpf items that aren't closed or wiki.

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This feature is already there! It's a bookmark in your browser. Just type your keyword in the search box, press Enter and bookmark the page. Whenever you want to search by those keywords just open that bookmarked link. You can also add additional criteria to it.

Since you can do it easily using bookmark, I don't think implementing such feature is good idea.

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    I do not want to clog up my bookmarks with every search I perform on an SE site...
    – Someone
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 4:47
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    @Purmou - We can add a new folder in our bookmark. And also how many searches will you save?
    – Himanshu
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 4:50
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    Well, you could argue that favorite tags could be bookmarked as well, but I would rather have the feature in a more convenient place, even simply extending the favorite tag feature to include other criteria.
    – Dave Clemmer
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 4:53
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    @DaveClemmer - No. Favorite tags feature is different from favorite search.
    – Himanshu
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 4:58
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    @hims056, I don't see favorite tags being inherently different from favorite search. If I click on a favorite tag such as wpf, it performs a search using "[wpf]". The bookmark argument can apply equally to favorite tags, but why not provide the ability to add more information to a favorite, such as multiple tags and/or other criteria? That would be MUCH more useful to me than favorite tags.
    – Dave Clemmer
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 21:16
  • @DaveClemmer favorite tags also affect what you see on the home page (meta.stackexchange.com/q/82947).
    – Paul Bellora
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 23:10
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    @Paul, yes, and it would be great if a favorite search feature could be applied in the same way. For example, if a favorite was "[wpf] closed:no wiki:no", only open, non-wiki wpf items would be highlighted on the home page. Or in other words, a favorite is a set of criteria that could just be a tag, or one or more tags with criteria. This would be MUCH more useful to me.
    – Dave Clemmer
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 23:31
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    -1 Bookmarks don't transport across devices; if it's in SO you have your favorite search from your home desktop, laptop 1, laptop 2, work desktop 1 and 2, android smart phone, ipod touch, and tablet PC (gee I didnt' realize I had so many... oh well).
    – Oliver
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 19:50
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    This would mean I'd need a bookmark for each stack I want this search query. In my case, that's every stack, since I want to search for answered questions I haven't accepted an answer on yet (user:me hasaccepted:no is:question answers:1 closed:no).
    – SQB
    Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 13:05
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+50

I was just wanting the same thing. I stopped using browser bookmarks years ago since result pages on most sites are not bookmarkable. Right now, the only place to store search strings is in your user profile or your chat profile. When you filter down to a particular range of questions that you may want to comment on or answer later, the only viable option is to favorite hundreds of questions.

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I'd like to see a cross stack option if possible. I often search for questions I've asked, where I haven't accepted an answer yet, but could have.

user:me is:question answers:1 closed:no hasaccepted:no

Likewise, I can imagine other queries that are stack-agnostic, for instance questions I have answered that have no accepted answer yet (so that I can try to improve my answer to get it accepted), open questions that have less than X answers and no accepted answer yet (so I can answer them), answers I gave that have a score less than Y (so I can try to improve my answer) and so on.

We have shorthand in comments for specific stacks, [stack.se], which could be used to narrow down a saved query to a specific stack (which would then jump to that query on that stack).

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