Boolean Search Issues/Concerns

[righteousdork 203]

These are all valid points.  My impression from the emails was that Premium subscriptions wouldn't lose features.  But if I've lost the ability to use advanced search options, then that simply isn't true.  That is a feature lost.  When I saw "Use Boolean terms to refine search results" in the Professional section, I immediately thought, "Oh no, this is going to affect me isn't it?"

[righteousdork 203]

I'm not sure what they mean by "Boolean terms to refine search results", but my Saved Searches and Shortcuts seem ok at the moment.  I wonder if Premium folks were grandfathered in on some of these Professional features.  If so, I think I'll just stop talking now.

[Mike P 2,633]

28 minutes ago, righteousdork said:

But if I've lost the ability to use advanced search options, then that simply isn't true. 

The announcement says:

NEW: More search options, including Boolean terms and geographic search to find precisely the information you need.

which doesn't suggest to me the withdrawal of advanced search options just the addition of Boolean search

[righteousdork 203]

1 hour ago, Mike P said:

The announcement says:

NEW: More search options, including Boolean terms and geographic search to find precisely the information you need.

which doesn't suggest to me the withdrawal of advanced search options just the addition of Boolean search

Yeah I may have jumped the gun there.  My apologies.  I saw that in the plan comparison and assumed my saved searches were toast.  Good on them then.

[Mike P 2,633]

1 minute ago, righteousdork said:

Yeah I may have jumped the gun there.  My apologies.  I saw that in the plan comparison and assumed my saved searches were toast.  Good on them then.

More info has just been released here:

 

[AlbertR 531]

U-uh - my favourite wish of "normal" enhancements are Boolean searches...
Now we can have it 👍  but for additional money - we have to subscribe to Professional 😞

OK, I like their argument "pay if you want us to really help you in future for sure"
- and I will upgrade
-- but only if a real professional can work as fluidy and reliable as in the past!

As long as EN-10 is crapping my time and resources, I'll stay with Legacy and my personal account.

Boolean searches are state of the art in so many systems around the world. EN always has been proud about their search capabilities - to keep being the best should be matter of honor.

[Mike P 2,633]

6 minutes ago, AlbertR said:

U-uh - my favourite wish of "normal" enhancements are Boolean searches...
Now we can have it 👍  but for additional money - we have to subscribe to Professional 😞

OK, I like their argument "pay if you want us to really help you in future for sure"
- and I will upgrade
-- but only if a real professional can work as fluidy and reliable as in the past!

As long as EN-10 is crapping my time and resources, I'll stay with Legacy and my personal account.

Boolean searches are state of the art in so many systems around the world. EN always has been proud about their search capabilities - to keep being the best should be matter of honor.

I completely agree. I fully accept that it is within EN's gift to decide which features should be available at each level. However Boolean search and geographic search seem like pretty fundamental things for a company which, as you say. prides iteself in it's search abilities.  

[PinkElephant 8,088]

5 hours ago, righteousdork said:

These are all valid points.  My impression from the emails was that Premium subscriptions wouldn't lose features.  But if I've lost the ability to use advanced search options, then that simply isn't true.  That is a feature lost.  When I saw "Use Boolean terms to refine search results" in the Professional section, I immediately thought, "Oh no, this is going to affect me isn't it?"

There never was a Boolean search in „EN classic“. The „advanced search syntax“ was available for every user, but is wasn’t Boolean neither.

Boolean search is an add on for the new plan, not a downgrade by any means.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

@AlbertR EN said they will offer the same features for the same price - and some more.

Full Boolean search was never part of the package „before“. If you are hot about it, 2 $/€ sounds like a steal. If not, it sounds like an extortion. Always a matter of assessing one’s personal preferences…

[TheKnighWhoSaysNI 19]

I 100% agree.

Advanced search should be a fundamental feature.

I can understand they want to make a new plan for professional users.

But being able to search in a proper way isn't a feature that only professionals use.
Or they should rename Personal to => "Grandmother subscription"
Please don't hesitate to give your opinion over here if you agree!

 

I personal(ly) feel betrayed.
In the beta for tasks i made the remark you couldn't filter on stack level.
This was a problem for me, beceause i did wan't to filter betweek work en home.
Wel, now i know why they didn't activate filtering of stacks.... Not a technical issue.

[AlanH 64]

I think I'm going to go and have a quiet cry in the corner. 😢

I've been paying for Evernote since 2010, and a number of times asked why search did not include boolean operators - such a critical part of search.  So to hear (haven't used it yet as I'm only Personal now) that boolean searching is now available but I have to pay more for it feels like a kick in the teeth.  

To Ian,

I am impressed by what you have been doing to make the elephant dance again.  After years of no new features we are finally seeing the catch-up happening.  But I suspect you are going to lose a number of your long term users with the additional tier of pricing you have introduced.  You can already see this in the comments above.  To stick with EN for more than 10 years and now not get the features I have been hanging out for is so disappointing.  

While your organisation was wandering around in the wilderness without direction, the notes ecosystem has exploded.  With bidirectional linking still not available in Evernote, and just launching the basics of task management and calendar integration (well done for these they are a good start but not a finished product) you still lag behind other products that have entered the market in the last couple of years.  And now you are telling me that to get the payback for the years of loyalty, I have to pay more.

I understand your need to be profitable, but you need to retain customers - and retention is cheaper than acquisition.  After years of making do with Evernote, I have other viable options.  I now do most of my writing in Roam Research.   By making, what are for most products, normal search an additional cost item, I will be seriously considering my options with other products.  I already use Fantastical and Todoist for calendar and task management (they integrate together really well)  and what you offer, even at the Premium level, is basic.  Feels like too little, too late.

So what are 11 years of loyalty through the bad times worth to you?  

[Atirez 20]

How is searching, which is supposed to be the main reason we use Evernote, a professional feature? I'm pretty annoyed. After years of paying for a stagnant dying product the moment they start  investing in it I have to pay for more for standard features. Ridiculous.

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

The standard search in EN (including the „advanced“ search method) was never fully boolean. So far EN kept the promise that you still get what you used to have.

Emotionally of course you can say you feel you deserved to get more - whatever good this does. 

For the time being I stick with Personal, which served me well while it was Premium. 

When I have the time, I will use the 14day trial to test the new features and decide whether they are worth the extra money.

[10gallonhat 20]

Not giving us search capabilities as useful and functional as in the Legacy versions has hands down been the biggest reason I'm still using Legacy. Creating an improvement, boolean, which many search engines and companies have made the default option forever, as a new feature, but not adding that across the board, is some serious BS. I use EN for work and have thousands of notes. Search that finds everything is essential. Making me pay extra for it while saying that the new pricing tiers are equivalent to the old "and better" is just a lie. Unless Evernote forgot the first 10 years of their development as a company with a dedicated user base and think they started life as v10...

[DTLow 5,736]

16 minutes ago, 10gallonhat said:

Not giving us search capabilities as useful and functional as in the Legacy versions

I'm seeing basic search capabilities with both the Legacy and v10 products

Advanced search features are supported with the Professional account tier

[TheKnighWhoSaysNI 19]

@dtlow I agree.

Basic search capabilities => Basic tier (now free)
Advanced search capabilities should be there for users paying 60€/jaar!

[DTLow 5,736]

11 minutes ago, TheKnighWhoSaysNI said:

Basic search capabilities => Basic tier (now free)

Actually all tiers have access to Basic search capablilites

[PinkElephant 8,088]

All search capabilities are supported by all accounts, except

- geographical search (new)

- full Boolean search (new)

Since geo-search was removed years ago (then called Atlas), and boolean search was never supported, the „current“ search is as advanced as it used to be. To get the two newly developed search methods, an upgrade to Professional or Teams (former Business) is needed.

Here is an official description of search options:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040282613-Search-overview

The search available to all users was improved as well, with the new „contains“ operator. Everybody who could do with the current search syntax (including the „advanced search syntax“) up to now can IMHO do without Boolean and geo-based. This is an updated version of the search syntax description:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-How-to-use-Evernote-s-advanced-search-syntax

Who wants it „all“ needs to upgrade. I will try in a few days by using the 14 day trial - currently I doubt there is a need for my use cases to spend the extra money.

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

Boolean search should not be on the professional tier.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, ballantony said:

Boolean search should not be on the professional tier.

Why???   
Boolean attributes are a great addition to the search feature   
If you don't need the attributes, simply don't use them

[DTLow 5,736]

4 minutes ago, keruchan said:

Ermm what? Doee bolean search only exist on professional? 

Confirmed     
All plans get basic search attributes   
The Professional tier gets extended search features (Boolean attributes)

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

16 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Why???   
Boolean attributes are a great addition to the search feature   
If you don't need the attributes, simply don't use them

Precisely.  Boolean attributes are essential. There is no reason for charging extra for a feature that should be standard. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Up to now EN did without boolean search, for more than a decade. So it can’t be THAT essential. In fact the advanced search syntax (which is available for all users) allows pretty deep drilling as well. It got an upgrade now through the „contains“ parameter, free for all.

It seems the change in plans improved search for everybody. 

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

1 minute ago, PinkElephant said:

Up to now EN did without boolean search, for more than a decade. So it can’t be THAT essential. In fact the advanced search syntax (which is available for all users) allows pretty deep drilling as well. It got an upgrade now through the „contains“ parameter, free for all.

It seems the change in plans improved search for everybody. 

EN did without a lot of things for the past decade that I would consider pretty essential. The massive rebuild over the past two years is evidence that they think the same.

Find notes with the words dog and cat = a higher subscription?  That's ridiculous.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

I appreciate your ability to pick the dead wrong example to prove your point:

When you enter both words into the search field, EN will search only notes that contain both words. This is the standard, a Boolean AND.

To search notes that contain only one word of several, the syntax is all: cat dog . It is the equivalent to a Boolean OR.

Where it gets tricky is when you try to build complex Boolean requests. But cat AND dog is a piece of cake.

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

Just now, PinkElephant said:

I appreciate your ability to pick the dead wrong example to prove your point:

When you enter both words into the search field, EN will search only notes that contain both words. This is the standard, a Boolean AND.

To search notes that contain only one word of several, the syntax is all: cat dog . It is the equivalent to a Boolean OR.

Where it gets tricky is when you try to build complex Boolean requests. But cat AND dog is a piece of cake.

Actually, I was quoting Evernote's own help page: https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-How-to-use-Evernote-s-advanced-search-syntax

Here's the section

Boolean search

This feature requires a Professional or Teams subscription.

Boolean search uses operators that can combine or exclude certain terms in a search query. In Evernote, you can search using the operators AND, OR, NOT, and ( ). Below are a few examples.

Objective	Boolean search query
Find notes with the words dog and cat	Dog AND Cat
Find notes with the word dog that do not have the word cat	Dog NOT Cat
Find notes with the word dog or cat	Dog OR Cat
Advanced search query	Party AND City AND (balloons OR masks) (dog OR cat) AND (mouse OR rabbit)

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

As I showed you, you can do the same using the search syntax open to all users. It was „always“ available, gained more and more powerful parameters over time (and got more complex itself) and just now received a free upgrade by the „contains“ parameter.

It is described in the same help document, just above what you quoted. And it works for all accounts. You can do the same searches as with Boolean operators - as long as the searches are not very complex.

When building a search, keep in mind it is an interpreter - reading and executing left to right. Full Boolean allows for brackets, and through this for more complex search requests.

 

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

4 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

As I showed you, you can do the same using the search syntax open to all users. It was „always“ available, gained more and more powerful parameters over time and got more complex itself) and just now received a free upgrade by the „contains“ parameter.

It is described in the same help document, just above what you quoted. And it works for all accounts. You can do the same searches as with Boolean operators - as long as the searches are not very complex.

When building a search, keep in mind it is an interpreter - reading and executing left to right. Full Boolean allows for brackets, and through this for more complex search requests.

 

Hmmm. Given that I quoted the advanced search syntax document and that I am commenting on Boolean searches it would be reasonable to assume I know the above.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Hmmmm. But obviously you believed you can only search for cat and dog (with a logical AND) when you pay for it ?!

At least you picked that example, not me.

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Hmmmm. But obviously you believed you can only search for cat and dog (with a logical AND) when you pay for it ?!

At least you picked that example, not me.

Whatever, PinkElephant.

[dbvirago 501]

I just tried a search with cat and dog and it's asking me to upgrade.

Then I did a second search with lower case and it worked. Switch back to upper case and it wants an upgrade. 

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Sure, you added the buzzword „AND“ to the search. EN is looking at it, says it is an intended Boolean search, and politely refuses it to such minions like you and me (OK, the only minion is me). I assume you are not yet playing „Professional league“ ?!

If you want to search for both words (logical AND) in the classic search, do so without adding the AND.

Why doesn’t it search for „cat“, „dog“ and „and“ ? Because you can’t search for „and“ in the classical search, these fill words are not searchable.

[Reuven 29]

dbyirago, I just duplicated your experiment and got the same peculiar results... makes no sense.

When I used only the word AND in capitals, it didn't work as well. But as long as the word "and" is in lower case, everything works.

I think Evernote has the right idea to add new features now to "Professional", but playing with search is the wrong idea...Search is the foundation of this service, and those gimmicks don't seat well with users.

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

I really have problems to understand this statement: The search you know and used for years (I assume) just got a FREE upgrade, but you are complaining. OK, you can complain about what you want, no issue.

I don’t need Boolean search; the classical search does the job for me - and the new CONTAINS argument is a nice addition, free for ALL users.

[Reuven 29]

1 minute ago, PinkElephant said:

I really have problems to understand this statement: The search you know and used for years (I assume) just got a FREE upgrade, but you are complaining. OK, you can complain about what you want, no issue.

I don’t need Boolean search; the classical search does the job for me - and the new CONTAINS argument is a nice addition, free for ALL users.

Which statement?

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Playing with search and so on.

EN made it simple:

• They upgraded (!) search for everybody, by adding CONTAINS which allows to restrict searches to very specific content.
• And they added Geo and Boolean, and decided to put them into the Professional package.

Yes, it is not everything free for all, but is „gimmicks“ the right way to describe this ? No subscriber has less than before, we all have a better search now. If we want it even better, we need to open our pockets. You must not love it, but that’s life.

[qofmiwok 12]

I've telling everyone who will listen about Evernote for years, but I'm pretty much done.  I'll find something else when my subscription ends.  If there is one single thing that is most important in a sea of information it's being able to find it.  First they took away the control-F to find within a note, which makes me crazy daily.  And now you will have to be at a  "professional" level to use boolean search?  It's an insult.  

You want to give higher features to higher plans, make it actual features like calendaring, tasks, etc.  But searchability of your product is sacred and should be in the most basic of plans, or there is no value to having Evernote.

[DTLow 5,736]

3 hours ago, ballantony said:

Boolean attributes are essential.

That's an opinion; the basic search features are still supported for all plans
If you consider Boolean "essential", you can upgrade to the Professional plan

[qofmiwok 12]

On 7/8/2021 at 8:14 AM, DTLow said:

You missed the points for existing customers
- price not increasing
- not losing any existing features

Chicken Little was wrong

Disagree with that.  Searching got way worse when they got rid of the control F from legacy, and now they want you to upgrade to professional to do boolean search.  

[Tony Ballantyne 211]

1 minute ago, DTLow said:

That's an opinion; the basic search features are still supported   
If you consider Boolean "essential", you can upgrade to the Professional plan

I think @qofmiwok

Puts it best

 

And now you will have to be at a  "professional" level to use boolean search?  It's an insult.  

You want to give higher features to higher plans, make it actual features like calendaring, tasks, etc.  But searchability of your product is sacred and should be in the most basic of plans, or there is no value to having Evernote.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

24 minutes ago, ballantony said:

But searchability of your product is sacred and should be in the most basic of plans, or there is no value to having Evernote.

I don't know about "sacred", but I've always valued Evernote's extensive search feature    
Basic search continues to be supported at all plan levels, including Free/Basic

[Alxa 479]

+1 for not feeling right that search capabilities are divided into plans.

As Evernote never got to the point to be capable of executing partial words search (e.g. find a string within a word) which is pretty essential in some languages I feel no magic even with the new Boolean search (which is no magic). Come on guys we always knew we have to pay for the multitude of basic user base. And now it is getting worse, as always make your decisions.

Maybe: if they ever added partial word search, that would be something I consider to be worth the price.

[Reuven 29]

5 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Yes, it is not everything free for all, but is „gimmicks“ the right way to describe this ?

If you read the Cambridge dictionary definition of gimmick, this is exactly what they did! 

Search is a real value in EN. Boolean search is an enhancement. But if you can avoid using it and still get the results you want, it's a gimmick "that is used to attract people's attention or interest temporarily, especially to make them buy something" 

[righteousdork 203]

So just to be clear, I don't have to pay extra for "any: cat dog" but I do if I want to use "cat OR dog".

[qofmiwok 12]

3 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I don't know about "sacred", but I've always valued Evernote's extensive search feature    
that continues to be supported at all plan levels, including Free/Basic

Nope, look at the chart of features by plan.  Only the professional has boolean searching.  

[Reuven 29]

1 minute ago, righteousdork said:

So just to be clear, I don't have to pay extra for "any: cat dog" but I do if I want to use "cat OR dog".

...unless OR is in lower case...(or)

[PinkElephant 8,088]

@qofmiwokYou have your opinion, I have mine. I regard your opinion as unfounded, and have posted my arguments. You seem to have no other argument than ctrl-F, which by the way is there in v10 as well ( https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209004807 ).

Maybe you tell what in search you had before and doesn’t have now ?

I am missing nothing, I get a better search for the same price as before. Filters, saved searches, advanced search syntax, everything that was available is available. 

From my view the only problem here is that you think you have a given right to get it all, and don’t want to pay. Fair view (not mine), but I think you should not tell anything was made worse for those who don’t buy.

[righteousdork 203]

1 minute ago, Reuven said:

...unless OR is in lower case...(or)

Haha...yeah but that definitely doesn't give you what you want.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I love this place, it's hilarious.

[qofmiwok 12]

It's also disingenuous to say they're not taking anything away when they JUST took some away a few months ago when they moved to the new version from the legacy version.  For example, we could pin notes before, they took that away recently.  But now, surprise!  You can have it back with professional.  

[PinkElephant 8,088]

@Reuven Thanks for looking this up. If Booelan search is a gimmick for you, by definition you don’t need it. Then you won’t buy it, where is the problem ?

Maybe others don’t think it is a gimmick, regard it as useful (then the gimmick converts into a feature, I believe) and invest the increased price.

What to me makes no sense is to tell it is a gimmick (= has no value, is just a marketing tool), but say it should be free for all users. Because if it has value for all users, it is no gimmick. 

Please make up your mind, valuable or not. I have made up my mind: For me it is no argument to invest the additional money.

Is it now a gimmick for me ?  🤯

[Christophe Gevrey 13]

22 minutes ago, qofmiwok said:

Disagree with that.  Searching got way worse when they got rid of the control F from legacy, and now they want you to upgrade to professional to do boolean search.  

I don't understand, in-note search works for me in 10 with Ctrl-F

[qofmiwok 12]

3 minutes ago, Christophe Gevrey said:

I don't understand, in-note search works for me in 10 with Ctrl-F

Yep, someone just said that they just fixed that.  I've still mostly been using Legacy so didn't have that update.  At least they listen to feedback. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

@qofmiwok What do you mean by „pin“ notes ?

Legacy had the option to define notes and even notebooks as Shortcuts. V10 has it as well, from the beginning, if I remember it correctly. No changes, for nobody.

When Home was introduced, there was the option to pin one (1) note to the dashboard.

Many users requested to be able to pin more than one note on the dashboard (that was only introduced with v10).

Now EN says „You can now pin more than one note to the dashboard, just upgrade to Professional“.

What does it prove ?

First EN listens to its users - this pinning stuff was requested, by several users.

Second EN is out to make money, because they bundle much requested features and use them for an upselling. For me this is a good sign, because I want to stay with EN. So I appreciate if the make some money, because this is the way it works.

Maybe I am relaxed because the plan I had chosen a while ago for myself just got improved, for the same amount as before. I will give Professional a try with the 14day trial, but currently I doubt I need it. For sure not for pinning more than one note - did I mention there is a widget for the dashboard for your shortcuts as well ?

[Shane D. 1,818]

Hi All,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts/feedback.

In this case, I've split out the discussion around boolean search into it's own thread.

This will better enable our teams to capture your feedback.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[iceman melb 10]

Hi all,

in previous version of Evernote Mac, Windows and IOS, I could search for “precise words” by putting them in quote.

this has now been removed from the premium/personal version.

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828

• Quotation marks return results with an exact match. For example, "brave new world" returns only results with those 3 words in that exact sequence.

the only way I could do exact sequence word search is either to upgrade and get that feature back or go back to the legacy version.

 

I don’t think that’s fair to take a feature which was included away.

 

regards

 

ps: I’m assuming it’s an upgrade plan to Pro for exact sequence search to work 

 

[Mike P 2,633]

25 minutes ago, iceman melb said:

the only way I could do exact sequence word search is either to upgrade and get that feature back or go back to the legacy version.

I'm not sure that upgrading is going to help. According to the search grammar documentation (linked at the bottom of the article you reference) it should stil work:

• "eggs ham"
  • matches: "green eggs&ham."

But as you say it doesn't anymore. We do know that this document is hopelessly out of date.

Would a Boolean search actually help?

[iceman melb 10]

17 minutes ago, Mike P said:

Would a Boolean search actually help?

 

not sure. Can someone with Evernote Pro membership help?

 

ice

[PinkElephant 8,088]

The first document I linked is up to date.

I think that the apostrophe usage has changed when EB improved the treatment of punctuation in searches. This happened some time before they launched the new plans. Yes, they really should update the search syntax document.

Apart from this the logic is still:

cat dog = AND

any: cat dog = OR

-cat dog = dog NOT cat

What boolean search adds to this is AFAIK to build more complex searches. This was never part of the „legacy“ search.

[iceman melb 10]

2 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

apostrophe usage has changed when EB improved the treatment of punctuation in searches

Does that mean exact sequence word search is no longer available? It’s important in my workflow.

any suggestions as to how I can bring that back?

regards

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Up to now I have not played with the new search a lot. So no idea about this special search type.

From trying it briefly my impression is that the quotation marks had no effect.

[eric99 980]

4 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Up to now I have not played with the new search a lot. So no idea about this special search type.

From trying it briefly my impression is that the quotation marks had no effect.

In my windows EN, quotation marks do have the expected effect: it still searches for the literal string. Other notes containing the same words but scattered all over the document are excluded from the search result. So it still works as before.

edit:  I did an additional test, when I add a minus sign before the string, all notes containing this literal string are excluded from the search result.

example:  -"john doe"

However I can confirm that some punctuations are ignored in the search string.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

My brief trial was on iOS, if this makes a difference.

[dbvirago 501]

I'm not sure most of the people complaining understand what a Boolean search is. I have over 12K notes, and don't use tags. I have rarely needed more than one search term to find anything, but two or three always work. IMO, if you need that complicated a search with nested ANDs and ORs, you need better structure, tags, or both. We have never had Boolean searches. 

I think EN screwed the pooch on pretty much everything for the last year from a marketing and communication standpoint. But I have the feeling if they announced that only Professional level can use the phrase "Brussel Sprouts" in a note, there would be an uproar. The only thing in Pro I would like is exporting as PDF. If I decide I need it, I'll see if I can rearrange my portfolio and scrape together the extra $24 a year.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Brussel sprouts made my day 🤪

[dbvirago 501]

14 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

XXXXXX XXXXXXX made my day 🤪

I'm sorry, I had to redact that. Unless you give me a dollar.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

If they were fully boolean sprouts, I would pay. But Brussel already gets enough of my tax money 💸

Sorry pal …

[James Longley 90]

On 7/22/2021 at 8:58 PM, PinkElephant said:

All search capabilities are supported by all accounts, except

- geographical search (new)

- full Boolean search (new)

Since geo-search was removed years ago (then called Atlas), and boolean search was never supported, the „current“ search is as advanced as it used to be. To get the two newly developed search methods, an upgrade to Professional or Teams (former Business) is needed.

Here is an official description of search options:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040282613-Search-overview

The search available to all users was improved as well, with the new „contains“ operator. Everybody who could do with the current search syntax (including the „advanced search syntax“) up to now can IMHO do without Boolean and geo-based. This is an updated version of the search syntax description:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-How-to-use-Evernote-s-advanced-search-syntax

Who wants it „all“ needs to upgrade. I will try in a few days by using the 14 day trial - currently I doubt there is a need for my use cases to spend the extra money.

@PinkElephantdo you know how to use the geo search? I can't find any info on it.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Sorry, not on Professional myself. In the help document it says this:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828

 

The embedded links leads to a Google help page that explains how to search in Google maps.

There is another geolocation search embedded into the advanced search syntax. Since it was always available to all users, I assume it can still be used even when not on the Professional plan.

 

[Atirez 20]

On 7/24/2021 at 11:51 PM, dbvirago said:

I'm not sure most of the people complaining understand what a Boolean search is. I have over 12K notes, and don't use tags. I have rarely needed more than one search term to find anything, but two or three always work. IMO, if you need that complicated a search with nested ANDs and ORs, you need better structure, tags, or both. We have never had Boolean searches. 

I think EN screwed the pooch on pretty much everything for the last year from a marketing and communication standpoint. But I have the feeling if they announced that only Professional level can use the phrase "Brussel Sprouts" in a note, there would be an uproar. The only thing in Pro I would like is exporting as PDF. If I decide I need it, I'll see if I can rearrange my portfolio and scrape together the extra $24 a year.

Being facetious, questioning peoples intelligence, or simply dismissing peoples concerns as being irrelevant is not particularly helpful and are poor arguments.

If you look at the market these days a lot of software will provide gated access to certain features, in a lot of instances those features are in reality required to make use of the product. You quickly realise that you need to upgrade. e.g. basic plan allows up to 3 tags, premium allows unlimited. That is not happening here yet but it clearly the model that Evernote are employing. 

It is always easy to say you have the option to stop paying, but trying to extract 13 years of notes and information from one product to another is more involved than deciding to stop paying.

If everyone accepts every change, then every change is acceptable.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

EN didn’t raise prices for the existing subscriptions. They added features for the same price as before. So there is no argument like „now I need to leave, but I am locked in“, because when you continue what you did before, nothing has changed.

And yes, from posts I have answered I have the impression that there are People here in this forum who don’t know what full boolean search means, have no idea where to use it - but must have it, for nothing. Just because it now it there, and ouch, it must be marvelous because they charge extra money for it.

Here is a simple test for that: Who has ever used the advanced search page of Google ? Few have, if the first result is not what they want, they change the words, or add another on the initial page.

There is full boolean search in Google, for free. Who never used it will probably do the same in EN - what a „must have“ is that, fully ignored where available ?

This IMHO does not disqualify these users, you can live a long life without the need to ever search boolean. But the reaction of „I want it all, and for free“ do raise doubts about theses users approach to services - and their fellow users here in the forum.

[Atirez 20]

13 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

EN didn’t raise prices for the existing subscriptions. They added features for the same price as before. So there is no argument like „now I need to leave, but I am locked in“, because when you continue what you did before, nothing has changed.

And yes, from posts I have answered I have the impression that there are People here in this forum who don’t know what full boolean search means, have no idea where to use it - but must have it, for nothing. Just because it now it there, and ouch, it must be marvelous because they charge extra money for it.

Here is a simple test for that: Who has ever used the advanced search page of Google ? Few have, if the first result is not what they want, they change the words, or add another on the initial page.

There is full boolean search in Google, for free. Who never used it will probably do the same in EN - what a „must have“ is that, fully ignored where available ?

This IMHO does not disqualify these users, you can live a long life without the need to ever search boolean. But the reaction of „I want it all, and for free“ do raise doubts about theses users approach to services - and their fellow users here in the forum.

It is a subscription service not a one of payment. You subscribe for use, feature updates and continuous innovation. Evernote is search.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

First sentence: ... for the existing subscription levels. = Read before writing comments.

Search - little translation of the EN search language, available to all users (even the Free plan has no restrictions):

cat dog = cat AND dog

any: cat dog = cat OR dog

cat -dog = cat NOT dog

More details in the help documentation:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040282613-Search-overview

[alex s 2 0]

I am on Evernote Premium.

Search appears different in iOS and Desktop now.

I can still use the "AND" operator in desktop, but in iOS that requires an upgrade.

If I'm reading correctly above however, the "AND" term was actually never needed --- that's the default behavior for searching on both platforms? If so, I'm slightly embarrassed as I've been doing that for like 7 years.

But, is there a way to do an "OR" search in iOS? On Desktop, there's a prompt to change "matching" from "All" to "Any"

[PinkElephant 8,088]

The search language is the same for all devices. With v10 search is performed on the server anyhow, if I‘m not mistaken.

AND does nothing in the search syntax. It does not function as an operator, and it is not searched because it is to general a word to be of any use. So it is practically ignored. To search for notes with all words, just put them into the search field, and hit enter.

To search for notes in which one of several words are found, use the operator „any:“. 
any: cat dog will find every note in which one of both is mentioned, or both (non exclusive OR)

Here is some more:

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040282613-Search-overview

https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-How-to-use-Evernote-s-advanced-search-syntax

https://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/search_grammar.php