I remembered reading something about building strongholds in downtime in the DMG, so I searched on all sorts of variations of "stronghold", "building a stronghold", "creating a stronghold", etc and all I could seem to find was a section on "Strongholds" from Chapter 7, Other Rewards. So I pulled out my physical copy and, what do you know. There is a sub heading that is literally one of the terms I searched for "building a stronghold", but it didn't come up in the results. With the knowledge of what I'm looking for, found that section of the DMG on D&D Beyond and there was exactly what I was looking for, in the linked headings for that section. Completely invisible to the search engine apparently. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/between-adventures#BuildingaStronghold The same thing for "crafting a magic item". This returns all sorts of results for creating a magic item (as a DM) but not for crafting one (as a character). Of course, there is a sub-heading "crafting a magic item" which your search can't find. I did find some posts in the internet that refer to a specific page number where the information can be found. Which you also can't reproduce. Fine - its hard. But maybe it wouldn't be necessary to have page numbers if your text search wasn't total shit. If it is able to manage fuzzy searches and suggest related terms, finding an EXACT PHRASE should be trivial.
Even your own site seems to suffer from this problem. This is from an article recently featured on the front page of D&D Beyond
That link doesn't go to the details of creating magic items, presumably because even the author couldn't find it, it goes to the table of contents. Which has a heading "Magic Items", which is only a LIST, not information on creation. It may be in there but I can't find it because search doesn't work and there is no index. I paid for a bunch of the source books thinking it would be easier to find things using a search tool online. Turns out I was wrong, and its easier to find with the index of a physical book. Maybe before adding new features and the like, you could focus on making the existing materials useable by making them searchable, or at least including the index.
I just today searced for "concentration check" and got results for Hunter's Mark, Djinni and Green Hag (amongst others), but no result for concentration check rules. When I search the same on Google, the first result is for concentration check rules for spells on 5E.
If I had remembered that the rules are under section called "Spellcasting" in the PHB, I might have searced for that term. But the search is for the moments when you are not sure where the result is or what is the exact wording, but it is very challenging to use like this and almost pointless most of the times. It feels easier to use the (free) search tools online than the products I have paid for.
It is truly terrible. Made the more frustrating by the fact that you can easily use Google's search tools on the back end, so searches find partial matches and suggest correct spelling.
It does not inspire confidence in WotC's upcoming VTT.
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I remembered reading something about building strongholds in downtime in the DMG, so I searched on all sorts of variations of "stronghold", "building a stronghold", "creating a stronghold", etc and all I could seem to find was a section on "Strongholds" from Chapter 7, Other Rewards. So I pulled out my physical copy and, what do you know. There is a sub heading that is literally one of the terms I searched for "building a stronghold", but it didn't come up in the results. With the knowledge of what I'm looking for, found that section of the DMG on D&D Beyond and there was exactly what I was looking for, in the linked headings for that section. Completely invisible to the search engine apparently. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/between-adventures#BuildingaStronghold The same thing for "crafting a magic item". This returns all sorts of results for creating a magic item (as a DM) but not for crafting one (as a character). Of course, there is a sub-heading "crafting a magic item" which your search can't find. I did find some posts in the internet that refer to a specific page number where the information can be found. Which you also can't reproduce. Fine - its hard. But maybe it wouldn't be necessary to have page numbers if your text search wasn't total shit. If it is able to manage fuzzy searches and suggest related terms, finding an EXACT PHRASE should be trivial.
Even your own site seems to suffer from this problem. This is from an article recently featured on the front page of D&D Beyond
I agree. I really hope this feature is addressed. Right now it is worthless.
I recall there was a way to ask google to search within the website. Might be worth looking into for the meantime.
Edit: try searching "site:dndbeyond.com [insert search term here]" on google.
I just today searced for "concentration check" and got results for Hunter's Mark, Djinni and Green Hag (amongst others), but no result for concentration check rules.
When I search the same on Google, the first result is for concentration check rules for spells on 5E.
If I had remembered that the rules are under section called "Spellcasting" in the PHB, I might have searced for that term. But the search is for the moments when you are not sure where the result is or what is the exact wording, but it is very challenging to use like this and almost pointless most of the times. It feels easier to use the (free) search tools online than the products I have paid for.
This has been a problem at DDB for years. I really wish it would get addressed.
This. Search returns worthless results in the app. Terrible.
Didn't expect this search result...
It is truly terrible. Made the more frustrating by the fact that you can easily use Google's search tools on the back end, so searches find partial matches and suggest correct spelling.
It does not inspire confidence in WotC's upcoming VTT.