Gospel Library App and Website

[Carborendum]

Is there any way to get the people in charge of the Church website and the GL app to fix the search function for scriptures as well as GC talks and other addresses and publications?

What they lack:

• No Boolean operators.
• No "quotes" for a phrase.
• No near match cases.
• No special options like "include chapter headings".

What they do wrong:

• Provide a whole bunch of false matches that don't even contain the search terms.
• Provide a whole bunch of matches that are not in the book specified.
• Provide perfectly poor pairings pertaining to the present point.

Edited January 28 by Carborendum

[Vort]

26 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Provide perfectly poor pairings pertaining to the present point.

You should write up your complaints in sonnet form.

[mikbone]

Its a pretty dang good app.

I doubt any other religion has anything close to this level of performance.  And its free!

Its difficut for me to complain about free products.

i did ask that they allow searching specifically for content from Jesus Christ.

Curiously you can search for material specific to each of the modern day GAs but not Jesus Christ.

But I’m not a programmer.

Curiously I have found that AI is a dang good way to search for LDS content.

AI is pretty freakin good.  And still free!

[zil2]

52 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Is there any way to get the people in charge of the Church website and the GL app to fix the search function for scriptures as well as GC talks and other addresses and publications?

No.  If you email them to suggest that they do this, they will inform you that you are nigh unto an apostate who ought to buy a newer, more expensive Apple device, with a larger data plan.  Oh, and by the way, bless your heart for being so stupid.  (Yes, that's hyperbole, but it's roughly what they've said to me whenever I've sent feedback.)

You might try ScriptureNotes instead (not ScripturesPlus).  Here's a video:

The primary thing keeping me from going completely to ScriptureNotes is the fact that you have to be online to use it.  I want the old Gospel Library that was 100% offline, including a decent search feature, but alas, we can't go back to that version.

[zil2]

Alternately, use google's "site:" option and paste in the URL from whichever sub-section of the Library you want to search.

[Vort]

16 minutes ago, zil2 said:

you that you are nigh unto an apostate who ought to buy a newer, more expensive Apple device, with a larger data plan

All is not well in Zion.

[zil2]

11 minutes ago, Vort said:

All is not well in Zion.

Or at least not in the Gospel Library development team.  It's sad really, from 2011 to around 2016, the app was great and improving.  The team was open to suggestions and friendly with support.  Then something changed - a new program manager, a new senior developer, something - and the features got worse (as far as things not working, especially on older devices or without constant internet), and support got snobbish.

Anywho, I think ScriptureNotes is objectively far better than the GL now, and looks to only be improving.

ScripturesPlus has some nice features extra content, but the GUI is clunky to me - it's like it's 15 years behind as far as GUIs go.

Edited January 28 by zil2

[Carborendum]

25 minutes ago, zil2 said:

You might try ScriptureNotes

I'm familiar with it.  But I'm both a curmudgeon and a miser.  I'm not paying for that function.

[zil2]

3 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I'm familiar with it.  But I'm both a curmudgeon and a miser.  I'm not paying for that function.

There's a free version, and even the free version is better than the GL now.  Try it and its search engine, I think it might change your curmudgeonly mind.

[Carborendum]

2 minutes ago, zil2 said:

There's a free version, and even the free version is better than the GL now.  Try it and its search engine, I think it might change your curmudgeonly mind.

I'll take another look when I have some time.  But when I browsed the site the other day, I couldn't see any free option.

[NeuroTypical]

There's an LDS tech forum where stuff like this gets talked about all the time.  But last time I was there, their search function stank more than the main website, so I couldn't follow up on my previous posts.  Thirdhour has better searching than https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/forum/.

I console myself by remembering that one time my website developer Catholic neighbor told me "at least your church's page doesn't have the same yellow wallpaper it had in 1997".  

[zil2]

3 hours ago, Carborendum said:

But when I browsed the site the other day, I couldn't see any free option.

It's weird.  You have to sign up for the pro version trial, then go to Account Settings and cancel before the 14-day trial is over, and this will leave you in the "free version".

[laronius]

I just Google what I'm looking for and include LDS in the search and it does a decent job. You click on the link and it opens in Gospel Library. The downside is that you can't just hit the back button to go back to the search but it's generally still an open page so maybe an extra click to navigate.

[Anddenex]

22 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Is there any way to get the people in charge of the Church website and the GL app to fix the search function for scriptures as well as GC talks and other addresses and publications?

If not aware in the app itself you can send feedback:
Meatball menu top right > Help > Send Feedback. I sent feedback with the "Living" app and received a thanks. But as with any update/new feature it will depend on the stakeholder or project manager over that specific portion of the app as to what gets priority. They may have other priorities they have been told to develop.

What they lack:

• No Boolean operators.

-- I'd have to know what you mean here for testing. I tested a boolean for "and" and it only pulled up my search results for both and in the Book I specified. So they do have boolean operators, just maybe not what you were expecting.

• No "quotes" for a phrase.

-- They actually have this. You have two options: 1) Put quotes yourself, or 2) Use the pill button choice "Exact Phrase".

What they do wrong: (Can't say I agree with this point)

• Provide a whole bunch of matches that are not in the book specified

-- I've not come across this issue. They have the choice options and if you select that option it will only show that Book (i.e Book of Mormon) -- unless you have another book option selected. If you have another book option selected you will need to deselect that option.

-- Also for clarification, are you meaning book specified in the search? If so, ya, this won't happen. You need to select "Scripture" >> "Book of Mormon" or whatever you are looking for for it to only show that Book.

• Provide perfectly poor pairings pertaining to the present point.

-- I've not experienced this, as to how I'm interpreting your statement. If I have the right word or phrase I always find what I'm looking for, and sometimes more. But I think your critique with close matches is correct, and with specifically including chapter headings; although, I find with searches chapter headings are always included in the search.

Edited January 29 by Anddenex

[Carborendum]

19 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

If not aware in the app itself you can send feedback:
Meatball menu top right > Help > Send Feedback. I sent feedback with the "Living" app and received a thanks. But as with any update/new feature it will depend on the stakeholder or project manager over that specific portion of the app as to what gets priority. They may have other priorities they have been told to develop.

I don't have a typical phone.  It is limited.  So, I don't often use the phone app.  But I recall being frustrated with it in the past.  And my daughter gripes about it as much as I do.  And she has a regular Android.

19 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

What they lack:

• No Boolean operators.

Example: order & son

Doesn't seem to have an effect on the search results with or without the &.

19 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

• No "quotes" for a phrase.

 

Example: "order of the son of god"

(with quotes) Gave me a null return.

I take away the quotes and

• The first return has the phrase.  But I was looking for a different reference with a similar phrase which didn't show up until several returns later which bolded the words in such a way as to appear to be a mismatch and it didn't even highlight a key word in the phrase even though it existed in that verse.  I understand that the first was a perfect match, and it came first.  But the one I was looking for didn't even highlight "god" in the return.
• it gives a few verses with "son" and some with "order".

19 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

What they do wrong: (Can't say I agree with this point)

• Provide a whole bunch of matches that are not in the book specified

I can't seem to duplicate it right now.  But I got really frustrated when I was looking something up in the D&C the other day and it gave me GC addresses and other things that had nothing to do with the search terms.  It was just a total and complete miss.

Maybe the fact that I can't duplicate it means that they at least fixed this one issue.

19 minutes ago, Anddenex said:

• Provide perfectly poor pairings pertaining to the present point.

By this, I mean that it will give me a whole bunch of results that have nothing to do with the search terms I entered.

order of the son of god (without quotes) 

returned: Doctrine and Covenants 8 because it had "of" and "the" in the section heading.  Yet it did not highlight any of the same words in the section text itself.  This was on page 7 of the results.  Not really what I was looking for.  Why would it return something made up of only the most common words?

[JohnsonJones]

On 1/28/2025 at 3:06 PM, zil2 said:

Alternately, use google's "site:" option and paste in the URL from whichever sub-section of the Library you want to search.

This is what I do when I'm looking for specific things on the Church's site. 

[JohnsonJones]

On 1/28/2025 at 8:35 PM, laronius said:

I just Google what I'm looking for and include LDS in the search and it does a decent job. You click on the link and it opens in Gospel Library. The downside is that you can't just hit the back button to go back to the search but it's generally still an open page so maybe an extra click to navigate.

I open links in a new tab. 

(Don't ask how many tabs I have open at any one time.  It's probably not pretty).

[Carborendum]

Here's a great example:

I had clearly written a phrase: "word of my power"

But the first and third returns are only of individual words.  The 2nd and fourth returns have the whole phrase.

One would think that the complete phrase (a perfect match) would be at the top of the list.  Nope.  Individual words were given higher priority?

[zil2]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

Here's a great example:

I had clearly written a phrase: "word of my power"

But the first and third returns are only of individual words.  The 2nd and fourth returns have the whole phrase.

One would think that the complete phrase (a perfect match) would be at the top of the list.  Nope.  Individual words were given higher priority?

I should think you would know that if you want the exact phrase, you need to put it in quotes.  But I agree that weighting should have favored the exact phrase match.  Further, why is "your" bold in the first match?  The word "your" is in no way synonymous with "my".  That both are possessive pronouns should not cause them to be treated as equal in the search.  This engine is just messed up.

The thing that annoys me most - the page indicator at the bottom will indicate a billion pages - and as you flip through them, you'll start to get pages in other languages!  Why on earth do they not have an option to limit the results to a specific language!?  Every page has a language indicator in the URL, so clearly the database knows what language the page is in.  It could not get more basic than this, nor the utility (for me and for their server) be more obvious.

I could go on all day about the colossal failure that is this search engine, but it's pointless.  No one with the power to do anything about it will listen.

Here is your best buddy for searching the Church website:

https://www.google.com/advanced_search

 

[Carborendum]

2 minutes ago, zil2 said:

I should think you would know that if you want the exact phrase, you need to put it in quotes. 

Last week when I put quotes around it, it gave me no returns.  But I just tried it again, and it worked.

I guess someone actually listened???

[zil2]

4 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Last week when I put quotes around it, it gave me no returns.  But I just tried it again, and it worked.

I guess someone actually listened???

More likely some other problem got fixed.  Or someone flipped a switch to ignore footnote letters.

[Carborendum]

3 minutes ago, zil2 said:

More likely some other problem got fixed.  Or someone flipped a switch to ignore footnote letters.

My daughter was actually randomly selected (a while back) to provide feedback on the GL phone app.  She simply said, "Fix the search function on the App."

No response yet.

[NeuroTypical]

4 hours ago, Carborendum said:

She simply said, "Fix the search function on the App."

Please tell her thank you from all the humans who use the app.

[The Folk Prophet]

I'd like to add that I spent 80% of my life with no gospel app and somehow managed to learn the gospel and the scriptures pretty well, prepare talks, Bible bash, and/or etc. 

And I walked uphill both to and from school. (I really did!)

That being said... the search engine on the church site is terrible too. But there's no question things are improving there and in the app. 

[mordorbund]

23 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

 

I'd like to add that I spent 80% of my life with no gospel app and somehow managed to learn the gospel and the scriptures pretty well, prepare talks, Bible bash, and/or etc. 

 

 

80% of your life the scriptures were recorded in real time.

 

(I think I beat @LDSGator to it)