search with many word (Loved one) would be equivalent to (Loved AND one)

i also suggest, but this could be debatable, that if you just add one word (love), it would be equivalent to (love*)

quite interesting slides about mobile search
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~rukzio/mobilehci2009tutorials/Jones_MobileSearch.pdf
from the MobileHCI09 conference

this was also presented at MobileHCI09
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/cue/phrasebuilder/
regarding A Mobile Real-Time Query Expansion Interface.

a solution could be to write -> loved && one

searching for love will give results for that word only. love* needs to be explicitly requested.

I admit that this words differently to how google search works, so it may not be entirely familiar to everyone, but in the next version I am planning on adding extra features that will make it even less like google search, so I'm not too concerned right now.

Thanks for those links

How about changing the layout of the search? Tapping on the search button would show a textbox. Below the textbox are the options "Any word" and "All words". What do you guys think?

I was also thinking of adding a new button "Advanced Search" which give the user more options like searching only OT, NT or specific books, or searching Strong's numbers, etc. I know it's a little off topic but I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm thinking the solution to this is to redo the search tab. I was about to start on it just then, but remembered that v1.2 is meant to be strong's numbers ONLY, and I don't want to delay the release even more by adding yet another change! I am scheduling this for v1.3... If you have ideas for switches/multi-switches for this new search, please add them as comments! so far I have:

"any word" vs "all words" (basically, is the search an OR or an AND search)
OT vs NT vs custom (custom will allow some sort of selection of specific books)

go wild with brainstorming – as long as you won't be hurt if you suggest something and I don't add it...

ps: thanks for the suggestions!

Minimising input and allowing the most used scenario to be as streamlined as possible.
When i have used the application, i have -always- needed the search to try to find a specific passage that i remember in my head, but don't know where it is. so i have had to type the AND between each word that i want to seach with.

I usually, when i search, if i rember some unusual words use them. often only two and that usually finds me the right passage instantly.

I would really like that the default mode would be an:
"OR" search in "The whole bible", byt you could then, if you want, choose to search OT or NT

Sorry, i meant "AND" search in "The whole bible" ... not "OR"

inputting the following search term and pressing"search" requires 19 keystrokes (with 3 keyboard view change) on the iphone keyboard
spirit AND dove
(and gives 3 hits, in KJV, and all referring to the passages where the jesus was babtized)

inputting the following search term and pressing"search" requires 11 keystrokes on the iphone keyboard
spirit dove
(and gives too many results, impossible to scroll through all of them to find the one i want, it would be faster to scroll through the gospels instead... but if this gave the former result, it would be very good)

and for
spirit AND revelation => 24 keystrokes | 1 hit - the one i wanted
spirit revalation => 18 keystrokes | 465 hits

spirit AND rev => 17 keystrokes | 0 hits
spirit rev => 10 keystrokes | 456 hits
spirit AND rev* => 21 keystrokes (5 keyboard change) | 9 results
spirit rev* => 14 keystrokes | too many results
spirit* AND revelation* 23 keystrokes | 1 hit - the one i wanted
spirit rev | 10 keystrokes | too many results
------

optimally, from a user perspective, it would

the input
word1 word2

would search for the same things as the current input

word1* AND word2*
----------------------------

scenario. thw holy spirit reminds you of the passage about us recieving the spirit of wisdom and revalation, and you want to read the whole context.
you want as much time interacting with God and his word instead of the application.

if we do not want to go with

"word1 word2" => "word1* AND word2*"

we could go for
"word1 word2" => "word1 AND word2"
"word1 word2" => "word1* AND word2"
"word1 word2 " => "word1* AND word2*"
"word1 word2 " => "word1 AND word2*"

i.e, and extra space character after a word would be quivalent to the * symbol
since, you anyway have the finger on the spacebar between words, it takes very fe milliseconds to press the same ey once more, instead of opening two extra panels to and to find with the eye and press the * and close the panel again.

i see that the last post didn't mane sense since the double space was stripped from the post.
let '_' assume an extra space character

"word1 word2" => "word1 AND word2"
"word1_ word2" => "word1* AND word2"
"word1_ word2_" => "word1* AND word2*"
"word1 word2_" => "word1 AND word2*"

and it would not replace the * feature, but be an alternative to it.

Thanks Christoffer, I think I need to have a switch on the search page for the "*" results:

"exact word search" vs "fuzzy search"
(or worded something similar, but basically, add a "*" to each word in the search).
(and, yes, if you selected "exact word search", you could manually add a "*" to words you want to be fuzzy, if you only wanted a specific word to be fuzzy.)

The exact logic of each of the buttons/switches needs to be figured out later, but getting an idea of what buttons/switches should be available is very good, thanks!

(So that makes 3 buttons/switches so far!)

[as a side note, I never use AND in my searches -- I always use && because it's quicker and easier to type and is only an additional 4 touches. But, yes, I know the search UI is sorta broken. I was really struggling to figure out how to do it "right" and gave up in the end and simply got something out there so users could search, knowing that I could fix up the UI later!]

Great discussion. I definitely agree that search is one of the features that makes me use the digital version of the Bible and keeping the keystrokes as low as possible would be great.

I recommend having these defaults on search:

• AND instead of OR
• Search both OT & NT
• "Fuzzy search"

Buttons below the search bar:

• Any (OR)
• All (AND)
• OT
• NT
• Advanced Search

; where Any and All would work like a radio button, and NT & OT would work like a checkbox (tapping both OT and NT would search the whole Scripture)

Advanced Search would have additional search options like:

• Exact word search
• Search strong numbers
• Search specific book (or range of books like Mt-Jn)

Also, I think it would be better to separate the history from the search.

I would recommend using the ranking feature of lucene, and having it turned on by default with a check box to turn it on and off. This would probably be the quickest way of getting better results, along with possibly using "AND" as suggested, when not using the ranking feature.

The motivation for the suggestion, generally speaking, people don't want to spend a lot of time typing something in to search with all the lucene search features. The ranking feature does a decent job at ranking, but still isn't perfect.

just discovered how to do a search for a Strong's Number:

search for
lemma:H0430
to search for the 430 Hebrew (note the leading H and then the extra zero at the start of the number)

search for
lemma:G652
to search for the 652 Greek (note the lack of an extra zero, but need the G).

Both need to have "lemma:" at the start.

I'm noting it here, cause I'll do this automagically when you use the "search greek strongs" or "search hebrew strongs" options -> all you'll need to do is input the number to search for (or there may be other ways of searching, too, perhaps straight from the "info pane" that appears when you touch a <S> next to a word in the KJV with Strong's)...

Another thought: Search for a Bible reference? eg: search for "Phil 4:13" and make that go to Philippians chapter 4?

I would really like to at least be able to set the default search logic. since i want to type as few words as possible, then adding another word should filter the results (i.e using the AND logic by default) to provide less hits the more you type until you have found the verse you are looking for.

AND definitely needs to be the default search mode, not OR. Beyond that, I think Ishmael's suggestions are good.

I was trying to find 2 Chronicles 7:14, from which I remembered included the phrase "If my people" and the word "humble", so I searched for
if my people humble
It took forever, to the point that I thought the app had crashed. This was, of course, because there are several thousand hits for that combination in OR mode. When it finally came up I took one look at the list and gave up on scrolling through it looking for the verse I wanted.

On the other hand, searching for
"If my people"
was nearly instant, producing one result: the verse I was looking for.

Great app, BTW. Thanks for all your hard work!

ok, have had my first stab at this. Ended up having AND as the default, fuzzy isn't on by default (but it will remember your setting each time you run PocketSword, so in the world of iOS 4.x it should remember it for a while), defaults to searching the entire Bible, you can search for Strong's Numbers, and hopefully the UI is actually quite usable.
sorry it's taken so long!