Comment by llamageddon01 on 20/10/2021 at 12:27 UTC*

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View submission: The NewToReddit Encyclopaedia Redditica v2

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Searching

There’s a history of millions of posts for you to search on Reddit, and finding exactly what you’re looking for requires you to know a few tricks. Reddit’s native search facility is somewhat lacking and is something that’s been worked on[1] many times over the years. For instance, it wasn’t until April 2022 that the search feature was updated to index comments.

1: https://www.redditinc.com/blog/the-search-for-better-search-at-reddit

As Reddit search continues to undergo upgrades[2], the official subreddit r/reddit is the place to keep up to date with this and all other major changes to Reddit. The most recent official guide[3] should therefore be your first port of call, and this recent Lifehacker article[4] goes into more detail on the optimising filters available.

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/pjw2yl/whats_up_with_reddit_search_episode_iii_the_front/

3: https://www.reddit.com/wiki/search

4: https://lifehacker.com/reddit-has-hidden-search-tools-1849089864

As always, these features are mostly only available on the desktop or browser versions of Reddit, and not the mobile app.

 

• **Reddit’s Search Bar**

We’ve already established that Reddit’s search isn’t currently the best[5], but it’s still the easiest and quickest way to find what you’re looking for. You can also use the following modifier tags as part of your search query:

5: https://www.reddit.com/r/topofreddit/comments/65t796/and_now_a_look_at_the_machine_that_powers_reddits/

• **subreddit:subreddit** - *find submissions in "subreddit"*
• **author:username** - *find submissions by "username"*
• **site:example.com** - *find submissions from "example.com"*
• **url:text** - *search for "text" in url*
• **self:yes (or self:no)** - *include (or exclude) self posts*
• **nsfw:yes (or nsfw:no)** - *include (or exclude) results marked as NSFW*

You might like this illustrated guide[6] to using these. Another guide can be found here[7].

6: https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/advanced-search-on-reddit-like-a-pro/

7: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/right-way-search-reddit/

 

• **Google is your friend (other search engines are available)**

You can use Google to help you find posts on Reddit. For instance, to find your own contributions, type the following in to the Google search bar: site:reddit.com yourusername Note that you type your username without the u/. You can substitute any keyword to find relevant Reddit content this way, for example: site:reddit.com llama

If you’re looking for something more specific, Google’s advanced search https://www.google.com/advanced_search[8] is a useful tool. In fact, there are [many different ways of using Search Operators[9] to make Google more efficient for you[10].

8: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

9: https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

10: https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/advanced-google-searching-using-search-operators/

DuckDuckGo (DDG) also has an advanced search: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/syntax/

 

• **Third-Party Search Tools**

The links below are to third-party sites not affiliated with Reddit, but have been designed to try and make up for the shortfalls of normal Reddit search. I should add a disclaimer here that they might vanish[11] without warning as this very popular one[12] did in mid 2022. For the moment, these are still available:

11: https://www.reddit.com/r/pushshift/comments/uguhc9/help_reddit_search_wont_load_anymore/

12: https://www.reddit.com/r/pushshift/comments/ugtz37/camas_redditsearch_has_been_disabled_by_github/

• https://www.redditcommentsearch.com[13] Useful for searching for specific keywords from your own comments. You can enter both a username and a query string for more precise results.
• https://redective.com[14] A tool that allows you to gather information about a Reddit user, including profile information, total submissions per subreddit, word frequency, hours active and an overview of submissions.
• https://redditsearch.io/[15] A comprehensive search engine and real-time analytics tracker.
• https://github.com/pushshift/api[16] Not so straightforward as the above links, but an intrepid Redditor gave some instructions[17] which I haven’t tried for myself.

• *See Also:**

13: https://www.redditcommentsearch.com

14: https://redective.com

15: https://redditsearch.io/

16: https://github.com/pushshift/api

17: https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/vqtu8b/searching_for_old_comments/

• Navigating Reddit[18]
• New Reddit; Old Reddit[19]
• Official Reddit Announcements[20]
• Post Flair[21]
• Reverse Image Searching[22]
• Useful Links and Subreddits[23]

 

18: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/p8t966/reddit_and_karma_explained/h9ssh6c/

19: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hha8ay6/

20: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhpyfeq/

21: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhqwekz/

22: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhsko0z/

23: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/p8t966/reddit_and_karma_explained/h9stoov/

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