

Ask HN: Is there a good discussion search engine? - hysan

Google&#x27;s Discussion filter was immensely useful for filtering out all of the useless blog posts &amp; reviews that would tell me nothing about a product or piece of software. Reading discussions from people who have or are using a piece of hardware or software was the best way to formulate an informed decision when comparing products. Of course, that search filter has gotten worse over the years with &quot;-site:groups.google.com&quot; being an almost mandatory addition to any query. But, it still worked great.<p>However, Google seems to be on the verge of removing that feature.<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;productforums.google.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;#!topic&#x2F;websearch&#x2F;Psb6OmlLJTg[1-25-false]<p>It is no longer in the dropdown and to use it, you need to add &amp;tbm=dsc. How long this will last is anyone&#x27;s clue, but with it being removed from the dropdown list, I expect the filter to get worse over time.<p>So, does anyone know of a search engine that allows for searching similar to Google&#x27;s Discussion filter? A search engine that focuses on looking for information in forums, comment threads, and places like StackExchange?
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mknits
You may use Quora.com

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hysan
Quora is:

1\. Not a search engine. So you will not be able to see information from other
forums, discussion boards, etc. unless cited by someone else on Quora.

2\. Is a Q&A community so you will be limited to the experiences of the
community. This can also result in community bias.

3\. Is a site I would only consider to use as one of many sources for
researching information.

4\. Requires creating an account.

They also have an annoying history of hiding information found via searching
in other search engines so I do not trust the company all that much. Whether
or not that is a fair opinion is up to you, but that is why I would rather not
sign up for an account there.

