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I'm not sure this is a feature for others but for me it's rather annoying, almost a bug.
When I visit my own page (or any other users' page) the search field is populated with user:160398 in my case.

Now, if you're on any other page and the search field reads search, it disappears when you click the field and start typing. Where as if you're on the user page user:160398 is still there when you start typing.

I know it's a small thing but it's starting to annoy me. I guess the reason is to be able to include the search name in the search and only get hits from that user?
But as I'm often on my own page as default, that user:160398 always gets in the way when I'm doing a search.

Why would I want to search my own questions when I'm at my user page?
I'm just curious as to why it was added in the first place?

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"But as I'm often on my own page as default" Why is this the case? –  Tim Stone Sep 14 '11 at 11:47
Hmm, haven't thought about why. I guess it's just the most attractive page and I've always thought of it as the default page since it's mine here on SO. –  Niklas Sep 14 '11 at 11:55
I think most people, if they're not searching for posts from a specific user, they're usually starting off from the homepage or the Questions List. –  Grace Note Sep 14 '11 at 12:29

1 Answer 1

up vote 4 down vote accepted

The main reason is that it represents a quick method of searching for posts by a user. In your case, you only have 52 questions and 23 answers on Stack Overflow, your highest participation site. That you could probably just sift through on the profile itself.

Compare that with, say, Darin Dimitrov, who has over 10000 answers. That's an extreme pain to sift through using the profile page alone. By prefacing the search, one can immediately search without needing to look up the user ID number manually.

Quite often, many people who want to search for a user's posts will visit their profile in order to locate their ID number in the first place - this just cuts out the middle man. It's similar to how we automatically append a tag to the search bar if you're browsing a particular tag.

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Fair enough! I'll just have to be more frequent and build my reputation then =) –  Niklas Sep 14 '11 at 12:36

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