Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

👍 It searches alt text! A bit confusing when you see a search result where the post doesn't have the term you're looking for - but a welcome addition.

Note - even Twitter doesn't support alt text searches! https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/02/accessibility-you-cant-search-twitter-for-alt-text/

1/n

Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

👎 It doesn't support searching for domains.

For example searching for "shkspr.mobi" doesn't find any posts. I use a search like that to see who is sharing my blog.

Even if I add the https:// - nothing.

In fact, I don't think it searching for URl at all. Searching for https://example.com/ brings up nothing.

What gives?

2/n

Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

Obviously, it is early days. Not many people have visited https://mastodon.social/settings/privacy to enable search.

I like that it is opt-in. If you don't want your posts being easily found by weirdos, that's sensible.
I just hope that new users get asked / reminded that they can use it if they want.

3/n

Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

🌍 Cross-instance search seems to work!

Again, early days as servers roll out V4.2 and people choose to opt in. And, I guess, as posts syndicate across the Fediverse.

But it is nice to think I'll be able to find interesting people and posts no matter what server I'm on.

4/n

Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

💻 There are search operators! You can use `after:2023-08-05` to limit your results to more recent posts.

But… they're not documented in the user interface yet. There's a list of them at https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/26344#issuecomment-1668725055

Will be very handy to be able to only search for posts with attachments, or which are replies.

I hope we eventually get "not" operators etc.

5/n

Interesting things about the new Mastodon #Search.

😳 There's no blocking of rude words.

Obviously, no one would be naughty enough to post any rude content on the Fediverse, right?

But if they did, you could search for it.

6/n