Search in Friendica

Depending on the settings users of Friendica can perform searches for various things using the /search page (or the search bar in the upper navigation panel). The search is performed on the Friendica node itself, so only the content known to the Friendica node can be found.

• Pattern: @name
• Result: Lists all the profiles that match the name. The name can be used in the display name field of the profile or the nick name and it may only be a part of the entire text.

• Pattern: !name
• Result: Lists all the groups that match the name. The name can be used in the display name field of the group profile or the nick name and it may only be a part of the entire text. The groups can be hosted on any supported platform, e.g. Friendica, Lemmy, gupp.pe.

• Pattern: name
• Result: (Depends on the admin setting) Searches for all the postings that contain name and lists them. As full text searches are resource intensive, admins can limit the search to only be performed on the tags.

For the text search boolean operators may be used by prefixing the search terms with a + (word must be included) or a - (the posting must not contain the word). In addition brackets can be used to combine operators.

If no boolean operator is used for a word, then the OR is used.

For example +(Fediverse Friendica) +Berlin will search for all postings on the Friendica node that contain either Fediverse or Friendica and in addition the postings must also contain the word Berlin. In contrast -(Fediverse Friendica) +Berlin would search for postings that include the word Berlin but exclude all postings from the result that also contain either the word Fediverse or Friendica.

• Pattern: http://example.com/some/page
• Result: Friendica will try to find ActivityPub enabled content at the URL that was used. If successful the posting will be imported into the node, so that the user can now interact with the content as usual (like, re-share, comment, etc.)