Get rid of "Relevance" sorting searching AGOL content

[KFunahashi_SSMMA]

Frankly I find the "Relevance" sorting idiotic and useless.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how it finds the most relevant content when I'm trying to search for a layer, map, or app on ArcGIS Online.  It's not in any sort of order, and deprecated items still find themselves higher up in the list than authoritative items.  I can't find any technical specification on how this "Relevance" sorting is supposed to work either.

I always end up going to the "sort by" button and changing that to "Date modified" to find the most recent thing I worked on.

[MikeMinami]

@KFunahashi_SSMMA 

Where are you executing the search from?

Relevance applies when you enter a search term. The results of the search are ordered by relevance, or how closely items match the search term. Items that have more matching factors will appear towards the top of the list. Search takes into consideration all information associated with the item, including title, description, tags and so on.

I do notice that we have a minor bug on the Content tab. We are exposing a relevance option in the sorting menu when there is no search term present. I will note this so we can address it in a future update.

[KFunahashi_SSMMA]

Hi @MikeMinami 

Thanks for the information.  I am executing the search under the Content tab, usually under "My content" or "My organization".

I understand that items with more matching factors will appear towards the top of the list.  But on a more detailed/technical scale, where does it look for matches?  Or maybe from a practical point of view, let's say I have a map item or hosted feature layer that I use on a regular basis that I want to quickly search.  What are some things that I should do to ensure that the item comes up quite early on in my search?

I tried looking for any technical documentation about this but to know avail.

[MikeMinami]

@KFunahashi_SSMMA 

Search factors in all item information. Here's a help topic that describes what gets searched. 

We don't document what determines a good match, but we also factor in external factors like usage of the item. 

If you're just searching "My Content", the item listing by default lists most recently used items first. So likely, your item is near the top of the list already. Another option is to add frequently used items to your favorites, or organize items in folders in My Content.

Mike