Zotero Site Search

mroberts1839

I recently proposed a Zotero group to my colleagues.

One looked at zotero.org and asked: "how do you do advanced searches in the web browser? It wouldn't be so useful without that."

Looking at the web site, it seems there is indeed no way to do this. Actually, the forum search engine is more capable than the group search engine.

Are there any plans to enhance this functionality on zotero.org?

For me, at least, it would help make the difference between getting buy-in on Zotero, or not.

Thanks.

dstillman

Additional search improvements will certainly come to zotero.org at some point, but only the basic title/creator/year search is available now. Since most people use the client for extended work, this isn't a top priority. (Your colleague is aware of the client, right?)

mroberts1839

Yes, my colleague is trying out the client now. I'm not sure what workflow he was thinking of for site search.

My position is probably similar to that of many others: I'm that one person trying to attract the attention of my colleagues to a tool for group collaboration. They need to evaluate it. At the beginning, they don't yet understand what Zotero is. They see the web site only. They think that's it and they feel slightly unimpressed. I explain that it's "a browser extension" but most of them have probably never messed around with such things. Of course, once they click through and install, it's not very complicated really, but I do think Zotero would be a faster sell if this search functionality were surfaced in the web site. Think of it as better bait, maybe.

In any case, I understand this is not a high priority item. Thanks again.