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The link to search tips shows up only AFTER you do a search. Plus it's easily missed because when one does a search, one's eyes automatically go to the search result area. The right column by habit is ignored too because it usually has irrelevant data: ads, tag clouds, stats ..etc.

Anything that's used heavily on a site should be put in the FAQ page and that includes search. I have to do a dummy search to get the link to the search tips link. I suppose I can bookmark it.

BTW, why does search on 'user' does not bring up the link?

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2 Answers 2

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You can hit <ENTER> in the search box to get the help screen.

I'm always clicking on the search icon (alt text http://sstatic.net/mso/Img/search.png) expecting it to bring up the search help, but that doesn't work.

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  • 2
    +1 because the non-functional icon bothers me too.
    – Pops
    Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 1:23
  • Hello -- I'm Jonathan Sampson...I clicked the icon too :(
    – Sampson Mod
    Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 1:32
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    @jonathan ok, I removed the image since it was confusing.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 2:08
  • @jeff You didn't need to remove it - I think it looked good aesthetically up there.
    – Sampson Mod
    Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 2:53
  • The empty search is a good tip. You see, things like this are not mentioned anywhere and few people know this stuff. If the FAQ page has a link to the search tips it helps. Sometimes I read a faq page just to see if I am missing anything.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Apr 29, 2010 at 16:00
0

This is completed and was requested here:

Link to search help?

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