HOW TO: Do a COMPLETE Search for a Surname on GW

There is only one search box that will search the whole GW site: the "Search Social Network" box located in the upper-right of every page.

Any and all other search boxes will only search the specific area you are currently in.

If you want to search within each area individually, below are some tips you should check.

There are five primary areas in a Ning social network: Blogs, Forums, Videos, Photos, Groups.

When searching in a search box, the search will only search for the area you are currently in. This is a feature or drawback, depending on how you look at it. It keeps things divided nicely into the different areas; but you have to go to each area to search for something.

There are two other things to point out about searching. First, in regard to searching groups, you can search all groups from the main Groups page, or within a single group by opening the Discussion Forum for that group and searching. Second, you can search for surnames another user is interested in by clicking the Members link in the toolbar and then clicking Advanced Search. Here you can find the field for "surnames are you interested in" and search for members who have entered a particular surname.

For example, if you are in the Group Discussion Forum for Knibbs, and you search for Derham -- you will (most likely) not get any results. Because there are (most likely) no occurrences of Derham within the Knibbs discussions.

To actually do a thorough search for any surname:

1. Start by searching from the Groups main page.
2. After that try the Members Advanced Search (using the "surnames are you interested in" box).
3. Then do a search of the Forums.
4. Then Photos.
5. And finally the Videos.

This would give you a "broken-down" search of each area of GW for a surname.



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I am not a Ning expert. I'm a tech-head who has worked in IT for over 10 years; and I have some experience on another Ning network. This is not an official statement from the GW staff; just some friendly tips for my fellow GW users. Feel free to message me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions for other topics. ~Johnny