When building an application, is there any meaningful difference between the idea of "Find" vs "Search" ? Do you think of them more or less as synonymous?
I'm asking in terms of labeling for application UI as well as API design.
+22
A:
Finding is the completion of searching.
If you might not succeed in finding something, call the feature "Search". For example text search in an editor can fail due to no matches - then calling it "Find" would be lying.
On the other hand: in an established job searching site, you can say "Find a PHP job" because you know that for (almost) anything your users want, there will be offerings. This also makes it sound confident, positive and energetic.
Linguistically speaking, your answer is wrong. However, for the simple semantics of a software program, it works.
Robert S.
2009-01-26 18:59:55
Indeed, a find doesn't necessitate a search.
2009-01-26 19:08:17
I apologize for using the word "wrong." It seems very extreme. Heh. I think you know what I was getting at. :)
Robert S.
2009-01-27 17:31:20
Chill man you should call things what they are
2009-01-27 20:09:19
+2
A:
I don't think that there is any difference.
But then again, I'm Portuguese. :P
Megacan
2009-01-26 18:18:26
A:
I think search is more generic and more suitable for text search. Find sounds more like 'find a specific record or a group of records'
armandino
2009-01-26 18:19:00
+5
A:
In many applications, find means "find on the current page/screen", while search means "search the entire database/Internet." Web browsers, online help, and other applications seem to make this distinction.
Craig Stuntz
2009-01-26 18:32:21
+5
A:
I would say that "find" is focused on getting a single, exact match. As in the example above, you "find" the perfect PHP job.
OTOH, you "search" for jobs that meet your criteria. Searching is what you do when you want to graze through several results. "Search" returns pages of results. "Find" is closer to "I'm feeling lucky."
Of course, the terms get used interchangeably sometimes. But, I think that's the essence of the difference.
Jekke
2009-01-26 18:38:19
Agreed. Find=single hit, Search=multiple results. Also, if implementing a "Find Next" function makes sense, then use "Find".
Ishmaeel
2009-01-26 18:43:39
Tim Sullivan
2009-01-26 19:12:21
+12
A:
According to Steve Krug in Don't Make Me Think, when talking about usability for a publicly-facing web site, use the word Search for a search box and nothing else. (He specifically prohibits "Find", "Quick Find", "Quick Search", and all variations.)
The rationale is that "Search" is the most commonly understood term, so it's what people will look for when they aren't thinking, and you don't want your users to have to think (at all).
Adam Bellaire
2009-01-26 19:02:31
A:
Within most applications...
Find typically refers to locating text within the document at hand and jumps to the next occurrence.
Search typically refers to locating multiple documents (or other objects) and returns a list.
Chris Nava
2009-01-26 23:50:22