Advanced search: "is:answer" option matches question titles

Question

I've been attempting to search SO for answers (and only answers) containing the string plz using the Advanced Super Ninja Search Options.

The query I used is:

is:answer plz

However, the results returned were not what I expected:

Firstly, the results returned match questions where the string plz appears only in the title, and not in any of the answers. I've checked and none of the answers, comments, or anything else on those pages contain plz except the question title.

Secondly, the hyperlinks of those matched questions link me to answers on those questions, but as I said, those answers don't contain the plz string I searched for.

Examples of links returned by that search query:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6637763/postgis-postgres-geocoding-help-plz/6637861#6637861
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3981195/php-5-3-3-fails-to-validate-xml-against-nested-xsds-plz-help/5288415#5288415

My questions:

1. Is this status-bydesign or a bug?
2. If this is status-bydesign (and it seems strange to me if it is), is there any way to search just answer body text?

Answer 1

This is definitely status-bydesign. While using is:answer will only give you answers, recall from the search help page (emphasis mine):

… Results are weighted heavily towards question title matches, and any search terms matching the most popular 60 tags will be automatically mapped to a tag to help narrow your search.

Since answers don't have a "title", by default it retrieves matches hits to the question title. This is helpful for when you want to find a highly upvoted answer to a set of related questions.

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Now to do what you want to do, you need to include the body: search option like so:

is:answer body:"plz"

This will give you hits for answers that contain the word "plz" in the body.