Searching the Bible for a particular verse or topic used to be a pain. Before computers it meant relying on your memory, randomly thumbing through the Bible, or using a topical concordance. Then came computers, which forever changed the way we search the Bible. We could instantly jump to a verse or search for a known phrase. Searching the Bible couldn’t possibly get any easier! Or could it?
What if there was a Bible search website that was smart enough to complete your thought or make suggestions in real time as you type, similar to Google’s auto complete feature? Well now there is! It’s called Smart Bible Search 3.0 and after testing it for a few days I can say it could be the beginning of another revolution in how we search the Bible.
Seth Knorr, a voluntary youth pastor and computer programmer, started working on Smart Bible Search in December 2007 after seeing a need for improved Bible search capabilities. In May of 2011 he made the website available to the public for the first time.
“I always thought Bible searches should be better,” said Knorr. “I decided to create a Bible search engine that would be comparable to secular search engines such as Google.”
If you’ve ever used an Internet search engine, and who hasn’t, you’ll instantly feel comfortable with Smart Bible Search. As you begin typing, Bible passages appear in a drop down to suggest results that may match your search criteria. Results are returned based on relevance, so the most likely verses to match your search will appear first.
Smart Bible Search offers two ways to search the Bible. The dynamic search will return results based on topics, associated synonyms, tenses, and verses with like meanings that match your search words. The literal search feature is similar to traditional Bible search programs. It will return results that exactly match your search words, but will sort them by relevance.
I encourage you to visit Smart Bible Search 3.0 and try it for yourself. It’s already been added to my browser toolbar and I know I’ll be a regular user.
Be sure to let me know what you think of Smart Bible Search. Leave your comment below!
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