Advanced Search: Find Any Bookmark in Your Entire Library

Search is the most important feature in any bookmark manager. When your library has thousands of links, browsing doesn't scale. Here's how Recallio's search works and how to get the most out of it.

What gets indexed

Recallio searches four fields on every bookmark:

• Title — the page title, either auto-fetched or manually set
• URL — the full URL including path and query string
• Description — the page meta description, auto-fetched
• Tags — both the tags you set and the auto-tagger's suggestions

All four are searched simultaneously. You don't need to specify which field to search.

Basic search

Press / from anywhere in the app to focus the search bar. Type your query. Results update as you type.

A query like react hooks returns bookmarks where any indexed field contains both "react" and "hooks" — not necessarily adjacent. Every word you type has to match somewhere; it's not "either word," it's "all of them."

Combining search with filters

Search alone gives you results from your entire library. Combine it with sidebar filters to narrow scope:

Search + Collection: Click a collection in the sidebar first, then search. Results are scoped to that collection only.

Search + Tag: Click a tag chip, then search. Results are bookmarks with that tag matching your query.

Smart Collections: A Smart Collection is itself a saved search — you can't run an additional live search on top of one, so bake the keyword into the saved filter when you create it instead.

These combinations let you ask precise questions: "find all bookmarks tagged reference in my Frontend collection mentioning 'performance'."

Advanced search syntax

Recallio supports a small set of search operators for power users:

Operator	Example	What it does
"phrase"	"react hooks"	Exact phrase match
site:domain	site:github.com	Match a specific domain
tag:name	tag:reference	Filter by tag inline
in:collection	in:frontend	Scope to a collection by slug
-word	react -class	Exclude a term

Operators can be combined: tag:docs site:react.dev finds all docs-tagged bookmarks from react.dev.

Searching by date

The date filter in the filter panel (click the filter icon next to the search bar) lets you narrow by when you saved a bookmark. Useful queries:

• "Everything I saved this week" — use the Last 7 days preset.
• "Old bookmarks I should review" — set a Before date from over a year ago.

Date filtering stacks with search and collection filters.

Searching in bulk operations

After searching, you can select all results and apply a bulk action — retag, move to collection, or delete. This is useful for cleanup: search for tag:to-read, select all, and move them to a specific collection for a focused reading session.

When search doesn't find what you expect

A few things to check:

1. The metadata may not have loaded yet. Recallio fetches page titles and descriptions in the background after saving. If you saved something very recently, give it a few seconds and refresh.
2. Check your filters. If you're scoped to a collection, you won't see results from other collections. Click the × on any active filter to clear it.
3. Try a shorter query. Long queries require all terms to match. Start with the most distinctive word.

The value of good tags and descriptions

The more searchable text a bookmark has, the more powerful search becomes. A bare URL with no title gives search almost nothing to work with. A bookmark with a real title, an auto-fetched description, and a couple of specific tags gives search four fields — and tags often contain the exact language you'll use when searching later.

Develop the habit of adding one or two specific tags when saving anything important. It takes five seconds and dramatically improves findability six months later.