Current status of the Ning Platform is always available on the Ning Status Blog.

As we announced last month, Ning.com Network Search is making a comeback!

We have been working hard to make it easier than ever to find Ning Networks for your interests and passions. So we’re happy to announce that in the next few days, search will be back on Ning.com! We’ve heard a lot of feedback about how important this feature is from Network Creators as well as from members looking for Ning Networks.

For your Ning Network to appear in Ning.com’s Network Search, it must:

  • Be public. Prospective members won't know too much about or be able to join your Ning Network if
    it's private, and we want to protect the privacy of private Ning Networks and their members.
  • Be active. If your Ning Network has thousands of members but hasn't had new content in months,
    it's not likely to be ranked highly in searches.
  • Be launched and accessible. We don't want to showcase Ning Networks that aren't yet ready for prime time!
  • Not contain content that violates our Terms of Service.

For information on how to optimize your Ning Network for search, or if you have any search-related concerns about your Ning Network, please contact us through the Help Center.

Thanks,

Brent

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Comments

  • How is the order of the search results determined?
  • OK Eric - Mud racing was just a term I pulled out of a hat. But if you want to use it, then here we go. If you will take a closer look at what your results show, you will see only 1 out of the 6 returned actually had the words 'mud racing' connected. I was extremely gratified to see 1 network that was into 'mud cookies' returned. A Google search showed 6 actual mud racing sites on Ning listed in just the 1st page alone!

    For a more specific example, I will use mine.
    Type in "Proviso East" in the Ning search box and you will get 1 result (not mine), type in proviso East and then Ning within the results on Google and you will get 4 Ning networks out of the top 5 results.

    Now for the kicker: The 1 result that the Ning search engine returns only has 36 members. The Google result lists 2 more Ning networks (1 is mine) ahead of the Ning returned network. Mine has over 600 members and I think the other one has way more than that. I also know that both mine and the other one have content added all the time.

    THAT is the problem with the Ning search engine. It is NOT indexing the titles, tag lines or any of the other vital criteria correctly. NO, I do not want mine listed 1st if it doesn't meet the criteria better than the others, but I do want mine listed! This complaint is not about who gets listed first or last. It IS about getting listed at all.

    And 2 weeks to the help ticket on this and no results. Apparently they can't even just slam me in 1st place just to shut me up. ;-)
  • And when i search for 'mountain dulcimer', this is what I get:
    http://www.ning.com/search?sf=t&q=mountain+dulcimer
    and when I search for 'dulcimer', this is what I get:
    http://www.ning.com/search?sf=t&q=dulcimer

    Why oh why don't I get any references at all to my site???:
    http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/

    I've done the help tickets, and the Ning 'search team' (Lisa) has been in touch back and forth with me politely 3 times since April 1st on this thread, assuring me that my site will be included....but it's just not happening.
  • OK, I have laid off of this subject for a couple of weeks and I have submitted a Help Ticket and I can see no change whatsoever as of a few minutes ago. Maybe mine and others comments about the pinwheel are not being understood, so I will take another stab at it.

    I understand your criteria for the relevance issue but only to the extent that someone has searched for mud racing, for instance, and you have 52 networks related to mud racing. Common sense would dictate that the most active network meeting all of your other criteria would gain a higher ranking. Problem with the pinwheel is that not all mud racing networks are listed on one pageas you get with a Google or Yahoo search. You have to keep spinning the cute little pinwheel which can be exacerbating.

    My issue, and that of others, is that when the exact words that are in the network name are entered, the so named network does not show up at all!! This is ridiculous. If a stranger wants to find my network using the Ning search function, I don't exist. BUT if they use Google, up pops the devil. WHY??
  • I do hope so :-) Believe me, get back your old search tool that worked so well! Why to loose so much time when things worked so well? You have left us so long time without a searching tool when the old one worked so well! Can't you wait to get away something when you haven't a better option to offer? Besides, posts are a mess now. When we copy a text from another source, it becomes all mixed up...and thank God I know some HTML, but I would be retired to fix every post properly...I am complaining in a constructive way, (I have sense of humor too, please smile :-)...because now to pay won't be a choice, but a duty...in this case, things must really work...and before you charge! :-) Right?
  • Am I missing something? Because I find this tool totally useless, while I think that the old search tool was so good! It was so easy to find networks to join just searching with a keyword.

    Are you taling about this right? http://www.ning.com/
    Yes, nice graphically, but then? At first, my communities, as the other communities that I have joined in the past, are "spiritual". Now I do not join any community because I do not get invitations and I cannot look for communities that I may interest me. About "spiritual", that is a HUGE TOPIC, I do not even see the category here. Then, if I click for example "network", I get some networks to see...and when I click again, I get more...you need to be retired to find what you are looking for! That means that you must have so much time for this search, if anyway your patience holds until the end.

    Honestly, I tried already several times to look for something, but it drains my energy at once! Besides, my communities are not going to show up in that way...how can I know? I cannot play with that tool more than 2 seconds, it must be more effective! It looks that just a little part of all the Ning communities will show up in a considerable time available to "not retired people". How can we find what we are looking for, with all the thousands and thousands of communities that you have, not using a specific keyword?

    I make you an example. I wish to find a community for "vegan people". Shall I click forever hoping that it will show up? For me this tool is useless. I already expressed my judgement via email several times, but I get an occasion more here...as for a case I was this discussion. I think that it is pretty weird that I need to go on Google to find Ning communities! Before it was much better...as many other stuff. You are caring for the graphic side of tools, but technically things do not work as before in time.

    My community is about Twin Souls and it is a spiritual community. How can someone find me? Please Ning Team, show me, because I do not get it. I have paied the Premium Service for about 2 years, until a few days ago. Now we will see what you are going to tell us...but if you charge, you must make these tools to work! And for every community and not just some selected ones of your own choice!

    If I am missing something, enlighten me...

    I see that Robert tells about searching with the network name. I cannot see that possibility. Then, I see that for example StartUp always shows up as first search, although it has 75,000+ members...this tool would help minor communities to be found! Besides that we must have every page visisble to be found is another mistake.
  • has this been fixed? i would be interested in finding out more.. and how to get people posting on my network.
  • Hmmm...has the search feature been removed for the moment? It appears to be...non-existant.
  • When I search by either the main (unique) keyword or both words in my network's title i get a single result -- which is a post I made on another network. Seems like no matter how poorly my network ranks in the index it'd still show up when there's only one other result found...
  • i would love to set my network back on public, unfortunately ive had to kick about 20 members off my page for drama, bickering and infighting and then slandering my network on other ning groups and or stealing my content... Ive filed a complaint with ning they said i had to file a police report for all this aggravation.,

    is there anyway to set it back on public and not have my site hacked again.. because these former members also have css codes they are sharing with each other to wreak havoc on various similar sites. one of my friends even got her bank accunt hacked!

    how can we protect the privacy of our members?
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