What am I doing wrong with search? This kind of nonsensical result happens frequently. I want to use brave exclusively, but often find myself going back to search in safari

Troubleshooting technical issues is much easier when both the user and support agent practice clear communication. For this reason, we have provided the template below for you to fill out with information about your issue. Please provide as much detail as possible so we can most efficiently resolve your problem.


Description of the issue:
Often when I search, I get results like what’s shown in the screenshot.

Brave Version (check About Brave):

Version 1.45.1 (22.11.17.19)

Operating System:
iOS

No idea. I tried to duplicate it on my iPhone just now and got these results

What version of Brave are you using and which version of iOS?

Are you typing this into search bar at Brave Search or you doing it via browser’s search bar? Does it happen the same if try one way vs the other?

I did look for similar and noticed people have had this issue on different devices and browsers over the years.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1227574

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7980563

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/all/address-bar-inserts-20-in-spaces/026be81b-8df4-40a5-bdf5-22afd12ccfc6

What I’m not sure of though is how to toggle it or adjust the issue.

I’ll tag @michal just to see if he knows.

I use the address bar in the browser to search. Is there a standalone brave search a app?

No, but you can go to https://search.brave.com/ and search or you’re able to type it in on the URL/Search bar that’s always there (the one you use to go to websites).

I guess part of me is wondering if it’s entering the %20 only when you’re typing and submitting via the URL/Search bar and if it would do normal search if you did it at https://search.brave.com/ instead.

It’s just a random thought/question. Until then hoping Michal or @Mattches might know.

Oh, and don’t forget the other questions I asked. It helps on them checking things out and offering solutions.

  • What version of Brave?
  • What iOS version?

@twelve25oh9,
I can’t reproduce this either and I don’t think I’ve seen this before. As @Saoiray is asking, I’d also like to know if you get the same results when you go to search.brave.com and perform a search, or if this only happens when you use the address bar to search.

I’m also curious if you get the same results if you were to only use a one-word query. For example, if you were to simply search “dog” in the address bar, what results do you get?

1 Like

I’ll try the search bar next time instead of the url bar. My iOS version is 16.0.3 and my brave browser version is 1.45.1 (22.11.17.19). Thanks for your help.

I’ll experiment and let you know.

I have done the exact same search via search.brave.com, and the results were much much better. I think the problem seems to be that the url bar is not entirely effective as a search bar like I’m accustomed to in other browsers. That’s perfectly fine, I’ll make the search page my homepage and all is right with the world! Thank you both for your help.

1 Like

@twelve25oh9,
So this points to the issue being the default search option rather than an issue with Brave Search itself. If you’re willing, can you please perform a couple of tests for us? The first one being the other test I suggested above — if you simply type in one word (for example “Dog”) in the address bar with Brave Search set as your default search engine, do you still get the same results?

I’m also curious as to whether you get similar results if you search via the address bar while a different search engine is set to your default. Feel free to set the default search engine to whatever you want, use the same search query you used in your initial example above and let us know what the results are.

I wasn’t able to reproduce the exact problem with your search phrase but I very often get search results that are completely unrelated to what I am searching for. It can be really irrelevant and kind of nonsensical.

One word search (“dog”) using brave browser address bar returned exactly what you’d expect and want from such a search.

Repeating my originally mentioned search terms (“How to get truck dog enough exercise”) using Google as my default search engine and typing query into brave browser address bar returned very satisfactory results, more so than those returned by brave search, because they were more specifically relevant.

I’ll have to reach out to the Search team about this. When I perform that exact search using Brave Search in the address bar, I get the number of and types of results you would expect. Appreciate your patience here.