I started writing on Medium back in September 2020. I finally wanted to start publishing content and stop making excuses for not writing. Medium was a place I consistently found insightful articles on (particularly in the software development realm) and I hoped to find my way into writing for some of these publications.
It’s been an interesting journey so far and overall a positive one. So much so that I a) pay for a Medium subscription and b) told one of my friends to join and start writing there as well.
He gets his first post up about the future of music and I promptly open it up and give it 42 claps to show my appreciation. I’m proud of him for taking the first step and move on with my life.
Flash forward to yesterday when I’m trying to find this article again. I assumed I was a good friend and followed him the first time, but apparently I broke my finger clicking the clap button and so I couldn’t find him under my “following” list.
I decide to search for him by full name: “Benjamin Byram”:
There are some reasonable suggestions that show up here, but it is clearly missing the result that is a direct text match to a user that exists in Medium’s system.
The only explanation I can maybe fathom is that this search is running off of some old cache. But his account has to be at least a month old at this point, so even if this is the case clearly this needs to be updated more frequently.
The Plot Thickens
In an attempt to get a screenshot without the URL in the bottom left (as seen in image above) I decide to just repeat my search to confirm it still occurs and snag a better screenshot.
Suddenly there are no results for the same query.
Surely if I try again, I’ll just get no results again, right? Wrong.
When I’m paying $5 per month and my friend is paying $5 per month. I darn well expect that if I search their name I find them.
Searching for Myself on Medium
I think I’m somewhat relieved to see myself here, but I can only assume that this search somehow factors in popularity of an author. How on earth does Adam Kopec or Chris Adams better match the search query “Adam Berg”?
Consider this a long winded feature request to have the search feature return results based on what I entered and not based on what Medium thinks I am looking for.
