tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Hidden user)

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Hidden user" (8408)

Anton Geraschenko — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:50:50 -0700

For me, to get the google search to be different from internal search, I have to add "http://":

site:http://mathoverflow.net hatcher

Jonas Meyer comments on "Hidden user" (8403)

Jonas Meyer — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:57:37 -0700

The Google search is different from the internal search, and I am surprised that his user page didn't come up for you. I double checked before I posted, and again just now, and the exact Google search I mentioned gave me the user page as the first hit. Maybe it is because of Google's personalized searches?

VP comments on "Hidden user" (8402)

VP — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:35:23 -0700

Thank you, Harry, that explains it.

Jonas, google search isn't any different from the internal search function. In this case, plentiful references to Hatcher's Algebraic topology come up, not his answers or user page.

Jonas Meyer comments on "Hidden user" (8401)

Jonas Meyer — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:36 -0700

Or you can use Google, as in:

site:mathoverflow.net hatcher

I've never seen this "feature" documented except when it came up on meta.

Harry Gindi comments on "Hidden user" (8396)

Harry Gindi — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:25:54 -0700

If a user is unregistered, you must search for the exact name to find him or her in the user list.

VP comments on "Hidden user" (8395)

VP — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:43:12 -0700

I was looking for the answer to a question whose title I forgot. Since I knew who gave it (Allen Hatcher), what could have been easier: just go to his user page and it's linked from there, right? Wrong! Typing either his first or last name in user tab search didn't yield anything. Similarly, I couldn't find him in the list of users sorted by the reputation. For a few minutes I thought that he quit MO for some reason and deleted his account, which was a very disconcerting thought. Fortunately, a search of another question that I remembered him answering led me to his user page. So with some effort that involved memory search (more efficient than the questions search!), I got what I needed. However, I am mystified as to why the user name search didn't work. Is this a bug or an undocumented feature of the system? I recall other instances of likewise not being able to find a user whom I had seen previously.