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Forum Thread

What happened to "Title Only" search option?

1,998 584 April 16, 2025 at 01:44 PM
If I do a search from the main search bar at the top of the page, there is no longer a filter option to search in the title only (versus title and first post). If I go into the forums and do a search, the option is still shown but doesn't do anything. For example, a search for "printer filament" in Hot Deals shows 75 results by default, including not just filament but also printers. If I select Title Only in the filters, it still shows 75 results even though many/most don't have "filament' in the title. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong; it's the same way I've searched since joining the site 15+ years ago.

Is this feature intentionally gone but just not hidden everywhere? If so, WHY??? Searches are SO much less helpful if I can't constrain the search terms to titles only.
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brossow
Joined Oct 2009 L5: Journeyman
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Joined Nov 2012
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TracyH1290
04-17-2025 at 02:56 PM.
04-17-2025 at 02:56 PM.
I noticed this as well. Not only is it missing in the UI from the left menu, it doesn't seem to work anymore when appending '&searchin=title' to the URL.

Trying to search for 'IPhone Unlocked' returns too many unrelated results without the Title Only option.
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Joined May 2012
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sans.
04-30-2025 at 06:10 AM.
04-30-2025 at 06:10 AM.
Noticed this myself when searching for 'mac mini' I get a bunch of returned results that are partial matches only.
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Joined Jan 2010
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leefy20
04-30-2025 at 05:47 PM.
04-30-2025 at 05:47 PM.
Yeah, something changed again in the last couple days, I can't accurately search for sweepstakes by expiration date anymore, such as searching for "4/30" or "5/1"
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Joined Sep 2007
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biggiesteve
05-02-2025 at 01:12 PM.
05-02-2025 at 01:12 PM.
Quote from leefy20 :
Yeah, something changed again in the last couple days, I can't accurately search for sweepstakes by expiration date anymore, such as searching for "4/30" or "5/1"
Agreed. It's been like that for a few days now.
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Joined Apr 2013
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emceep | Staff
05-07-2025 at 11:30 AM.
05-07-2025 at 11:30 AM.
Quote from brossow :
If I do a search from the main search bar at the top of the page, there is no longer a filter option to search in the title only (versus title and first post). If I go into the forums and do a search, the option is still shown but doesn't do anything. For example, a search for "printer filament" in Hot Deals shows 75 results by default, including not just filament but also printers. If I select Title Only in the filters, it still shows 75 results even though many/most don't have "filament' in the title. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong; it's the same way I've searched since joining the site 15+ years ago.

Is this feature intentionally gone but just not hidden everywhere? If so, WHY??? Searches are SO much less helpful if I can't constrain the search terms to titles only.
Quote from leefy20 :
Yeah, something changed again in the last couple days, I can't accurately search for sweepstakes by expiration date anymore, such as searching for "4/30" or "5/1"
Quote from biggiesteve :
Agreed. It's been like that for a few days now.
Thank you for taking the time to report these issues. Site search has been going through a lot of changes recently, and I know these changes can be annoying and inconvenient, but the team is still actively working on fixing issues. There are tickets in the works that should hopefully address both of these concerns once they get released.

Quote from TracyH1290 :
I noticed this as well. Not only is it missing in the UI from the left menu, it doesn't seem to work anymore when appending '&searchin=title' to the URL.

Trying to search for 'IPhone Unlocked' returns too many unrelated results without the Title Only option.
For now, please try putting quotes around each word ("iphone" "unlocked") and see if that provides more relevant results.

Quote from sans. :
Noticed this myself when searching for 'mac mini' I get a bunch of returned results that are partial matches only.
For now, please try putting quotes around it ("mac mini") and see if that provides more relevant results.
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Joined Oct 2005
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WhipperSnapper
05-12-2025 at 05:40 AM.
05-12-2025 at 05:40 AM.
Came here to express the same concern. I would hate to see Slickdeals search become as awful as Amazon's search functionality.
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Joined Jan 2006
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avhokie
05-13-2025 at 05:21 AM.
05-13-2025 at 05:21 AM.
Please fix this
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FabulousSeed964
05-18-2025 at 08:23 PM.
05-18-2025 at 08:23 PM.
Agreed. Sites like this become largely worthless if search is broken. My "advanced" searches no longer work properly. My deal alerts are having similar problems. This is especially true when trying to use @title. Try this search and notice the granola bars that come back: nvidia 4060|4070 @title -refurb*
There are other operators besides @title that are not doing what they are supposed to...

Basically, all of the functionality explained here needs to come back and be tested to make sure it works: https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=67718300&postcount=540
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