Site Search Facility

EmmaGale · #1 (**permalink**) 10-12-2004, 01:22 PM

Im not sure if im in the correct forum here.

Does anyone know of a good and easy to implement site search faciilty? Not a search engine but where there is a box which you can add a keyword too that allows the user to search within your own site?

Ive very little programming experience so it will need to be reasonably easy to install.

Any help will be appreciated.

Kind regards
Emma Gale

fctoma · #2 (**permalink**) 10-12-2004, 02:37 PM

We have been utilizing the "free" search program (Atomz) for our websites search capabilities; this will stop now because Atomz decided to include Google Adwords contextual ads within the results page.

So, this means when someone searches while on our site, they will get a result page that contains our competitor’s ads.... purely unsat.

Does anyone have feedback/suggestions on a good company to use for internal search capability???

Help needed :)

Thank you much...

paulhiles · #3 (**permalink**) 10-12-2004, 02:37 PM

Hi Emma and Frank,

You could try third party options, (as Frank has) such as atomz or freefind. Both provide a free search facility for your site. Google also provides a free site search facility, (providing you have pages they've indexed!)

Here are some links to previous discussions on this topic at WebProWorld...

Script to run a search engine

how to add google search

Implementing a 'Search' option in my web site

Hope that helps,

Paul

PS. I've merged your posts into one thread, as you're both asking basically the same question. :o)

EmmaGale · #4 (**permalink**) 10-13-2004, 08:30 AM

Thank you - that is extremely helpful.

Kind regards
emma

RikR · #5 (**permalink**) 10-13-2004, 06:28 PM

I am pleased with the Google serach on my site.

vivekar · #6 (**permalink**) 10-13-2004, 11:22 PM

Thank you paulhiles.
The info you have provided is just much helpful.

I have missed those posts.
Thanks for the link.

mikmik · #7 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 03:25 AM

http://www.xav.com/scripts/search/features.html

Quote:

What is the Fluid Dynamics Search Engine?

*

FDSE is a search engine that you install on your own site. Visitors to your site use it to find files on your site or on a small cluster of sites. The search box at the top of this page is an example of how FDSE is typically used.
*

FDSE is different than Google or Altavista, which search the entire Internet. FDSE only searches the sites that you tell it to. It can handle about 10,000 documents in all, which is plenty for one site but much fewer than the total number of documents on the Internet. (more info on size limits)
*

FDSE is smaller than Google or Altavista, but it is qualitatively identical to them. It has its own built-in web robot for retreiving files, which means it is not limited to searching only documents on its own server. It builds its own index files and returns results from them, unlike some "meta-search" scripts which make behind-the-scenes requests to major search engines to gather results.
*

FDSE runs entirely on your server, so visitors aren't redirected to a separate centralized server to get their results (as with Atomz and Freefind). If your web server doesn't support Perl CGI at all, then you might be better off with one of those remotely-hosted solutions.
*

FDSE is a flat search engine - it accepts keywords and shows a ranked list of search results. It does not organize pages into browsable categories and subcategories like Yahoo does.

Features and Benefits:

*

Unrestricted full version download - you can try before you buy.
*

Code executes 100% locally on your own server - no dependencies on other sites or companies.
*

Code is 100% pure Perl - no dependencies on external modules or system calls.
*

No forced banner advertisements to distract your visitors.
*

Extras are optional. For example, you can configure your own keyword-triggered banner ads, but that's your choice. They aren't forced on you.
*

Platform indepedence - runs well on Unix, Linux, Windows NT, Windows 200X, Win95/98/ME.
*

Completely template-based: you control the entire look-and-feel of the site by editing text/html template files. No need to edit the source code... though you can do that too. You can always preserve your existing templates and data when upgrading or re-installing the product.
*

Dependable user support, featuring many in-depth help files and an active discussion forum.
*

Code is modular and heavily commented for the benefit of those who want to be hardcore. Can be called as an API from another Perl script. Format of all data files is documented in the help file.
*

Highly customizable filter rules allow you to programmatically control which web pages are included in the index. Filtering can be done based on patterns in the hostname, URL, or Document Text, or based on RASCi and Safesurf PICS headers.
*

Resource-intensive actions, like indexing entire web sites, are spread across multiple CGI executions, using META refreshes. This prevents web server timeouts due to excessive resource usage, and allows the action to recover if some individual CGI executions fail.
*

Searches text and HTML files. Can also search PDF, MP3, and MS Word files with helper applications (help file).

This script may be downloaded and used for any purpose, including commercial, provided that the Distribution Conditions are met.

These guys also install for free, but it is so straight forward, you just upload and then sign into an admin/config page with your browser.
They make good stuff.

I want to check out your links too, paulhiles.
you find good stuff!

paulhiles · #8 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 06:45 AM

Hi Mik,

I saw the line in the FDSE feature list there... "Try before you buy". Does this mean you have a limited time period with which to test out the software?

Quote:

you find good stuff!

We both find good stuff! it's finding enough hours in the day to check it all out that's the hard part! :o)

Paul

mikmik · #9 (**permalink**) 10-16-2004, 07:54 AM

Nope. It is fully functional for always! If you 'buy', you get to remove the link to xav on the pages.

I have it ready to go on my site, just waiting for content LOL.

Mayhaps I should just fire it up now. Then SEbasic could take a look also.

mikmik · #10 (**permalink**) 10-16-2004, 08:19 AM

OH, HO HO HO HO!

You have to get this one, paul.

http://factor1.net/info/index.php

Try this term: web design

I logged in, put in my own URL, it spidered my index page and presented all the links on that page, with a checkbox for each one.
I selected the one's I wanted, and sent her away again to index stuff.

It presented a list of all the links on the sites/pages I spidered/indexed for the next level of indexing if I so choose.

Talk about user friendly. It all took less than a minute. There are all sorts of configurations options available. It is SWEEEEET!

The bit I did was just a quick test, no settings, just default.

The results page can be displayed inside any page if I want, I can include all my own stuff.

It is fancier and has no links to xav if purchased, but there are no ads, just a link.

paulhiles · #11 (**permalink**) 10-16-2004, 08:50 AM

Looks very nice Mik. Had to laugh at Rocky's site getting the number one spot above the rest of us mere mortals!
<thinks>must work on more keyword stuffing!</thinks>

Did you enter the "stop" words yourself? I noticed it excluded the word "web" from that particular search. Also, does it give more weighting to the item's title or the associated body text? If it's as easy to set up as you say, I may give it a whirl myself.

Good work young feller! ;O)