Using Gospel Buddy Search

This guide covers both website search tools and explains the new settings dropdown, cleaner search pages, and the fastest ways to find what you want.

What are the two search pages?

Reference Search helps you find General Conference talks tied to a scripture reference. Conference Text Search helps you track how words and phrases appear across conference over time.

Reference Search

Reference Search now opens with a cleaner layout. The extra options live inside a Search settings dropdown above the search area, so the page stays simpler until you need more control.

The three search modes

Single verse is the simplest option. Choose a book, chapter, and verse. Leave verse set to All verses to search the whole chapter.
Verse range lets you choose one continuous range inside a single chapter. End verses earlier than the start verse are disabled automatically.
Advanced text is the best option when you want abbreviations, chapter ranges, or cross-chapter references inside one book.

Reference examples

Alma 32 for a whole chapter
Alma 32-33 for a chapter range inside one book
Genesis 1:31-2:3 for a cross-chapter range
1 Ne. 3:7, D&C 4, and JS-H 1:19 for common abbreviations

Why the dropdown modes stay inside one chapter

The dropdown modes are meant to be fast and easy. When you need more complex ranges, the advanced text option gives you that flexibility without making the main page feel harder to use.

What the settings dropdown does

Apostles only limits results to apostles.
Count mode switches between total footnote mentions and distinct talks.
Minimum quoted percentage filters lighter references out of the results.
Year, conference, speaker, and page-size options help refine large result sets.

How the percentages are calculated

Single-verse searches show the quoted percentage for that verse in each talk.
Multi-verse searches show how much of the selected verse set appears in each talk.
The minimum quoted percentage filter is applied before the results table is built.

Troubleshooting

If the reference is invalid, the page now shows a clearer error with examples.
If the range is too large, narrow it to a smaller range. Extremely large queries are blocked on purpose.
If you need to cross chapters, use the advanced text mode instead of the dropdown modes.

Conference Text Search

Conference Text Search keeps the scatter plot, keeps both measurement modes, and now puts the advanced options inside a settings dropdown so the page feels closer to Gospel Buddy without feeling cluttered.

How to search

Type your search into the main box and click Search. The information icon next to the search bar gives quick syntax help right on the page.

Search syntax cheat sheet

faith searches one word.
“plan of salvation” searches one exact phrase.
temple || temples combines related terms inside one series.
(Joseph Smith) (Brigham Young) compares two series on one chart.
temple -garment excludes talks that contain the unwanted term.
redeem* uses a wildcard prefix.
atonement~ can be used as a fuzzy word search for a near match.

What the settings dropdown does

By conference splits April and October apart instead of combining them by year.
Table mode swaps the chart for a simpler numeric view.
Per talk uses raw matches. Per 1000 words normalizes for talk length.
Chart type lets you switch between scatter, line, and bar views.
Case sensitive makes matching stricter.
Year, conference, and speaker filters let you focus before searching.

By year vs by conference

By year combines April and October together. By conference keeps each conference separate so you can see more detail over time.

Per talk vs per 1000 words

Per talk uses raw matches.
Per 1000 words normalizes the count so talks of different lengths are easier to compare.

Display modes

Scatter is the default and is the fastest way to spot spikes over time.
Line helps when you want a smoother trend view.
Bar can make conference-to-conference differences easier to compare.
Table mode is still available and can be easier to use on mobile or for copying values.

Talking through the results

Click a point on the chart or a clickable table cell to open the extension-style talks table below the chart.
The talks table includes bars, counts, sorting, and direct links to the talks.
You can export both chart data and talk results.
Searches can now be shared more easily because the page uses URL parameters.

Troubleshooting

If nothing happens, make sure you clicked Search. The page no longer runs searches as you type.
If a search looks broken, check the loading or error message under the search bar.
If your chart is too busy, use speaker, year, or conference filters first.
If you need exact wording, use quotes.