Searching on Medium - the Medium Search Function
How to search on Medium, Medium Searches, Medium Searching
UPDATE: Medium has improved the search function. Visit the page below for information!
The following info is out-of-date. Please click on the Link above for current information about Medium Searches.
Get savvy with your searching on Medium. Search quality stories using very distinct search words (based on natural language that readers would use in a spoken sentence) and clap for those stories, and the authors may reciprocate, or this may bring their readers to your stories as they investigate who you are, or what you write, if you leave a Comment or highlight or clap a story.
The basic Medium search using a word typed into the search area on the homepage (by clicking on the icon or picture of the magnifying glass at the top-right) results in stories and comments with the search word appearing either in the Title or in the writer’s name or in the Comment.
When you type a search word or phrase into the search-box on the Medium homepage, by clicking on the magnifying glass at the top-right, the default list that comes up is an infinite list of top Stories and Comments.
I think that these are top-rated based upon a combination of things, perhaps a combination of the latest story with this tag, that was viewed or read, and the number of views and/or reads, to date.
You can also click on People or Publications or Tags to refine your search.
If you are a new writer or a writer without a huge following of readers who actually view/read your stories, then you may have a “snowflakes chance in hell” of having your Medium stories FOUND and read or viewed.
This is because Medium promotes the stories which somehow get a lot of views (by being curated and/or because the authors have loyal followers who read their stories and/or because the authors and/or Medium promote their stories).
Thus, the already well-read Stories are promoted, to always rise to the top, like the cream. However, they are only the “cream” for those first followers who like that version of cream.
I am sure that there are many stories as equally well written, entertaining, and useful or valuable as the “chosen ones” that are promoted, which languish at the bottom of the deep blue sea, so to speak. 😕
This brings us to my own personal story.
A long time ago…in a faraway Galaxy….no, back in April 2019, I wrote an article titled “How To Stop Feeling Overwhelmed”.
If you did a general search on the keyword OVERWHELMED (link below) on 9 July 2020 my story would appear in the top-rated list with about 20 “higher rated” stories above it. Woohoo!
https://medium.com/search?q=overwhelmed .
It has 826 claps but the two stories above it have around 70 claps. I know that Claps are no longer used to calculate Member Partner Program payments, but they are still an interesting metric to me. They show that readers care enough (or a story is valuable enough) to applaud it.
The ranking is malleable or changing all the time, as the number of views of stories change, so what could be the most top ranked in the general search results list could change tomorrow.
But really the point is that nobody knows what the formula or algorithm is for what makes a story “top rated” in the Search results.
If you type in “stop feeling overwhelmed” you’re more likely to come across my story, showing the more specific your search, the more you can hone in on stories with the search phrase in the title or body of the story.
Typing “stop being overwhelmed” probably won’t return my story in the top 10 by default.
The point is that writers don’t have a “crystal ball” to see what readers will be searching upon. One way to account for this, is to put the sub-title area to good use. In your Story’s sub-title include alternative likely or possible search terms, e.g. “stop being overwhelmed” could have been added to my curated story in the sub-title, in hindsight!
Luckily for me, my story was curated under SELF.
However, a Story does NOT have to be curated, in order to appear as a higher ranked story in the default Search results.
For example, my article “How to find the number of followers of a Medium publication” was not curated (and keep in mind that Medium does NOT curate any stories written about Medium), but it appears in the general search list of top stories and comments, under the search phrase “number of followers.”
https://medium.com/search?q=number%20of%20followers .
When searching upon a Tag name by Top Stories, if the stories published on Medium with this Tag have been good enough to meet the minimum requirements of the Medium programmers (being perhaps having had recent views or reads and a certain total number of views or reads) then they will make it to the “top stories by Tag” list.
For example, at 9 July 2020 when I searched “Wild Strawberries” as a Tag name, no stories were in the default Top Stories list, but there were 6 stories under Archive. Maybe there have to be at least 10 stories tagged “wild strawberries” for a story or a few to get into the “Top 10” list, but who knows?
Searching Tags using the Archive or Calendar function
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When searching a Tag name by Archives, the default is a list of stories sorted by most read. However, you can choose Sort by latest, Sort by oldest, or Sort by most read.
If you click on Archive then on Sort by latest, the results seem to give you the top “latest” stories that have been published on Medium, in terms of numbers of reads or views (or a combination of these, or maybe combined with the latest read or viewed, who knows). I wish that it would show the latest published stories!
To really start looking at the very latest published Story, in terms of yesterday, you have to click on the current year, then on the current month, then select “Sort by latest”.
However, in my great estimation, your Story may only appear under the Tags that you use, in the current Month / Year “latest stories” TWO DAYS after you have published it !!!
Try it out for yourself and see if you can find your published story under a Tag by searching for it by a Tag, on the day that you publish it or the day after!
This is probably because the Medium “algorithm” is whizzing around non-stop, putting stories into “buckets” or compartments according to the number of reads and views, and playing catch up with the millions of stories that are published on Medium every week.
So there may be a delay with your story showing up in the Search results. If you want your Story to appear on a Tuesday, perhaps publish it on Sunday!
The default number of Stories under Archive, for any of the orders or arrangements, is a maximum of 10 Stories. I have done some observing of stories under Months and Days according to the search orders of “Sort by latest” and “Sort by oldest” to find that when you search by a month, that the result is once again the top 10 published in that month.
If you search the Tag COOKING under the month of April 2020 (click on the link below), you will find by using “Sort by latest” OR “Sort by oldest” this will yield 10 stories only, with publication dates between 6 April and 28 April.
Now with such a small sample size, I don’t care much about whether they are sorted from oldest publication date to newest publication date or vice versa!!
https://medium.com/tag/cooking/archive/2020/04
Anyone knows that there would be more than 10 stories with the Tag COOKING throughout one month, e.g. April 2020.
Not Happy Jan! ←-line from a famous Australian television advertisement
When you drill down your Search by clicking on a Date (number), you do get to see a list of ALL stories with the tag in question for that one day. Once again, sorting by oldest or newest probably doesn’t matter.
So if you’re not a well-known writer, with your Medium stories promoted by being in the top ranked lists of stories when people search, because (1) they are well read and viewed due to the writer having a big following and (2) Medium promotes the top-rated Stories; then your stories have every chance of dropping to the bottom of the deep blue-sea, never to be found.
P.S. I realise that some writers put in a lot of time and effort to build up their following (and have time to do so, whether because Medium is their only or main source of income or they just have lots of time to write).
Be assured that I am not having a go at them. Rather, this article is addressing Medium promoting these already established writers, rather than letting lesser known writers be found.
Some Questions for Medium.
- Who is going to click on each day of each month to scroll through a list under Tags, to search for good stories to read?
2. Why can’t there be a search under a Tag for a MONTH with a lot more than 10 stories listed, say 100 stories, or with all stories for the month listed, under “Sort by latest” or “Sort by oldest”?
3. Could the Medium Programmers set up a default Search result under search terms, with an infinite number or a lot of stories categorised under “Top Stories” AND under “Latest published”?
Wordpress and other writing platforms yield an infinite number of results in strictly chronological (date/time) order, so the latest published stories can be found, so why doesn’t Medium do this??
New or lesser known writers won’t have their terrific stories found via searching on Medium, unless an avid reader/searcher clicks on a year, then on a month, THEN on each day that a story (or comment) was published.
