Using Second Life’s Search Function

One day as I was hopping from live music event to live music event, and was asked in IM how did I know were all the live music events were? I took the time to explain how I searched for live events using Second Life’s search, but it also reminded me that there are around 30,000 new downloads each day, and many new residents skip the orientation and head quickly into the “game.” After giving some thought to that new person’s lack of knowledge on how to use the Search, I have decided to attempt to write a basic how to on using the search.

Let me explain to the new residents, there is a lot to be desired in the search function within Second Life. It is by no means a good search engine, but can truly help a resident find all kinds of things. I realize this is going to be very elemental to many of you, but I am going to try to write on a very basic level for those who might have difficultly understanding the search. I am going to insert thumbnail photos in this how to, but if you click on the little thumbnails you will open a larger picture.

First let’s find the search function. Please open that thumbnail. You may want to open it by right clicking and selecting open in new window or tab. Let me call your attention to the bottom of the picture where there are blue “buttons.” That bottom line of buttons starting from the left to the right are IM, Chat, Friends, Fly, Snapshoot, Search, Build, Mini-Map, Map, and Inventory. The red arrow pionts to Search. When that button is clicked in world a window will open inside your Viewer showing the search function.

Let’s take a closer look at the Search Window. In this window, the ALL tab is activated. There are only two areas where you can input information to help you with your search. The longer white rectangle, where I have entered yard sales, and the little white square you check if you want the mature areas listed in the search results. In a perfect world, when you clicked on the search button inside that window, only results that were yard sales would come up. Because Yard Sales are very popular with new residents, many *#@!*#@! business or individual list any ole thing under that category; therefore, you still have to personally look over the results reading to make certain they are what you are looking for.

Next let’s look at the classified Tab. In the first image the Classified tab is open, and I have a red arrow pointing to where you can activate a drop down menu, which I have open. In the drop down you will find Any Category, Shopping, Land rental, Property rental, New products, Employment, Wanted, Service, and Personals. You highlight the Category which most closely matches what you are looking for and in the white rectangulararea (yellow arrow) you can add a word or phrase to help limit the classified add that will be returned. (at least in a perfect world without jerks) In the second photo you can look at the green arrow and see I have typed in the word “art” with the red arrow showing I have chosen the category shopping… and received results based on those two filters.

Lets have a look at the Events Tab. In the first photo, the red arrow is point to the area where the drop down menu is activated. This menu contains All, Discussions, Sports, Live Events, Commercial, NightLife/Entertainment, Games/Contest, Pageants, Education, Arts and Culture, Charity/Support Groups, and Miscellaneous. You highlight the one closest to describing what you are looking for. The Green arrow points to the white circle where you choose ongoing and up coming events or the Yellow arrow points to where you can choose to search for events on a certain day. The Second photo shows where I chose to search for Live Music, with a filter being I was searching for when Kim Seifert would be performing. (Yellow Arrow) The blue arrow shows I was searching ongoing or up coming events. The green arrow points to where I could have chosen a particular day to search, and The orange arrow shows that even though I was searching for events that were ongoing or up coming the only result I got for Kim’s Performances was on 2/10 at 1:00 pm SLT.

When you open the Popular places Tab, there is not much to choose and search for. The red arrow simply shows the popular places tab is open; the Yellow arrow shows the only two choices you can make… which are if you want only places that are showing a picture and the other is if you want mature areas shown.

Looking at the Land Sales Tab, the first picture shows the drop down menu open (red arrow) which has listed All types, Auction, For Sale–mainland, For Sale–Estate, and First Land. The yellow arrow is pointing to the area where you choose to put in about the amount of lines you are willing to pay and/or the size of the land you are looking for. The Second picture shows (red arrow) the search is going to be run for all types of land on both PG & Mature areas, and I am only wanting to pay 8,719 lindens and I have chosen no size. (yellow arrow)

Inside the People Tab. The first picture shows the red arrow pointing to where you open the drop down menu containing the categories Any, Linden Locations, Adult, Arts and Culture, Business, Educational, Gaming, Hangout, Newbie Friendly, Parks and Nature, Residential, Shopping, and Other. The yellow arrow is pointing to where you can type in the name of the place or part of the name to filter the results of the search. The Second picture shows the results where I choose the category Newbie Friendly and typed in the club name Virgo.

There aren’t many options in the people tab. You simply type in the name of the person you are looking for or at least part on the name of the person and hit search.

The finial Tab inside the Search window is the Groups Tab. Often you will find a place you are exploring has a sign that tell you they have a group which will allow you special previleges or will allow you to be notified of special events. You can type in the name of the group in the box the yellow arrow is pointing to and click the search button and join the group.

I hope I have gone into enough detail that even the newest person can now use the search feature of Second Life. Remember the Search lacks a lot to be desired, and many people list things in a category which it has no business being listed, but the Search is still a very useful tool and will help you get much more out of Second Life.