Why does searching for singular word "extent" return fewer results than plural "extents"?

[Bud]

When searching my Community profile, I noticed that searching for extent (10 results) returns fewer results than extents (16 results). If anything, I'd think the singular word would have more results than the plural since extent is in extents, but extents isn't in extent.

What's the reason behind that behaviour?

https://community.esri.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?filter=authorId&q=extent&noSynonym=false... 

https://community.esri.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?filter=authorId&q=extents&noSynonym=fals...

[Brian_Wilson]

The "reasoning" I can't help you with but the reason is that their search engine needs to be improved.

Normally I use an Internet search before using the search box here.

[JesseCloutier]

@Bud, you're the first person to ask us this question that I'm aware of and I'm honestly not 100% certain of the reasoning. The search tool for Esri Community is supplied by our platform vendor and It could very well be that there's room for improvement to keep up with best performance. I can understand why you'd want/expect this kind of nuanced understanding from the tool when it comes to results.

@SimiBasu Tagging you in case you have any more insights and points to add?

[Brian_Wilson]

@JesseCloutier, you (Esri) did not write it so I will cut you more slack. 🙂 We're in the same boat with our county web site

[Bud]

Also, why does searching for query layer extents produce more results than extents?

If anything, I'd think query layer extents would further refine the query (fewer results) since it is more specific, compared to extents.

[JesseCloutier]

@Bud, I believe what's happening here is that when you put in query layer extents without quotations, the system is searching for any results that include query OR layer OR  extents. You're effectively making the search net wider. When I added quotes around "query layer extents" the system turned up just one result which was your comment I'm responding to. If I run a search for "query layer" that turns up 96 results.

[Bud]

@JesseCloutier Good to know. Thanks.

I thought I'd tried using quotes in the Community search in the past, and got some unexpected results. But it seems to work ok in your test, so I'll have to give it another shot.

[SimiBasu]

@Bud @JesseCloutier after checking with the platform team and the scope, this is out f the box platform behavior and we will not be able to customize this to alter the results at this time. 

As mentioned above, the work around is to narrow or wider the search with quotes. Thank you.