How do I search Drupal.org?

If a basic Drupal.org search does not return the result you are looking for, or it brings back too many results, here are some tips that can help improve the results:

Limit your search

On the right sidebar of every search, you will see several blocks allowing you to refine your search (by type, by author) and reorder the results. You can also browse projects on the project download page.

Set up a Firefox search shortcut

Firefox allows you to add custom search shortcuts, so you can directly type your search in the Firefox address bar.

Here is an example to setup a shortcut for a general Drupal.org search.

1. Go to Drupal.org, perform a search using the site-wide search box, or click on this link to search for 'views'.
2. Bookmark the result page.
3. Open your browser's bookmark manager. Find the bookmark you just created. Change the properties of the bookmark as following:
1. Give it a keyword name, you can pick any letter or phrase as you want to use for this shortcut. In this example, we will use 'dms' for Drupal module search.
2. In location/url, replace your search term ('views' in this example) with %s.
4. Now you have successfully defined a 'Drupal module search' shortcut. The next time you want to search for a Drupal module, you can simply type 'dpm searchterm' in the Firefox address bar.

Set up a Chrome search shortcut/engine

With chrome you have something similar like firefox search shortcuts called search engines.

1. Rightclick on your url bar.
2. Open "Edit Search Engines"
3. There input the same kind of urls as listed on firefox

Useful shortcuts

Below are some other useful shortcuts. The search term has been replaced with %s, so you can directly copy/paste it.

Drupal 7.x API search

http://api.drupal.org/api/search/7/%s

Drupal 6.x API search

http://api.drupal.org/api/search/6/%s

Drupal 5.x API search

http://api.drupal.org/api/search/5/%s

Search for book pages

http://drupal.org/search/apachesolr_search/%s?filters=type%3Abook

Search for modules

http://drupal.org/project/modules?solrsort=sis_project_release_usage%20desc&text=%s

Goto a project page

http://drupal.org/project/%s

Goto a issue queue of a certain project

http://drupal.org/project/issues/%s

Goto a certain node(by nid) on drupal.org

http://drupal.org/node/%d

A

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Other topics that need to be completed:
Creating links to advanced searches with the specific criteria you want.
How to make a Firefox search shortcut to Drupal.org search (partially done, may need more examples).
Use Google to search (site:drupal.org your keyword(s) here).
For issues, use the advanced search feature to hone in on exactly the information you want. Right-click the feed icon and remove /feed from the URL, and you have a handy-dandy bookmarkable page.