13 replies to this topic

[copywriter]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for search aids I can add to one of my sites so visitors can search the site for info they need/want. I've used Atomz in the past, but have been told that it contains spyware so I don't really want to use it again.

All pages of the site are not indexed yet by Google so I *think* that means using their search product is out. ???

Any other ideas?

Thanks

[chrishirst]

If you have MySQL available iSearch is pretty good and for heavy duty stuff PhpDig takes some beating, though it can take quite a bit of setting up.

[Connie]

Here's another one. Search Script

[lyn]

If you liked Atomz, you should look at FreeFind (www.freefind.com.) It's a similar setup, where you configure your site on their website, they index it and provide a code snippet to include on your own pages. There is a "free" version with ads plus a good range of subscription prices for personal sites, small business sites and on up to enterprise solutions. Includes reporting, section searches and customizable results pages.

I just switched two customers from Atomz to FreeFind when Atomz started running sponsored links on the results from their free search. The paid subscriptions were considerably more $$$.

I understand that FDSE (from Fluid Dynamics) is a well-recommended Perl solution that resides on your own server instead of hosting the index elsewhere. Haven't tired it (yet) myself.

L.

[lyn]

I've used Atomz in the past, but have been told that it contains spyware

Karon, where did you hear that?

I would find it very surprising, but I haven't been able to track down any info either way...

L.

[jspope]

Hi!

In conjunction with Google AdSense, you can also monetize your site with Google's search box. Advantages include:

• You get a free search engine for your site; and
• Your visitors can optionally search the Web where sponsored ads can lead to advertising revenue for you.

Regards,

Stephen :-)

[Jill]

Atomz doesn't have spyware, but it does show ads now.

Google site search works well, like we have on the forum.

[Ron Carnell]

The SE script from Fluid Dynamics has almost certainly changed in the five years since I used it, but I can attest that their original was a high quality product. Fast, flexible, and with just a bit of under-the-hood acumen, extremely customizable. It was some of the most structured and highly optimized Perl code I've ever seen.

For anyone who wanted to host their own solution and not depend on others, I couldn't recommend it any more highly (while simultaneously hoping they haven't changed everything just to make a fool out of me ).

[Connie]

Ron,

The link I orginally posted as Search Script was for Fluid Dynamics. Bad naming on my part.

Anyway it is a powerful script. I have a couple of problems with it due to my ignorance.

When I do a search it returns nearly all page of my site in the results. The most relevant pages are in the first few results. My second problem is that I have not figured out how to display the text I want in the results. Bottom line I'm ignorant in tech stuff but I will get this worked out.

Here are a couple of the primary advantages of the engine at least in my mind.

It is free. For a modist one time fee you can register and take their copywrite info off the bottom of the search results page. Other than the copywrite there is no advertising.

It records what the searcher was looking for. If someone uses the search box I think it will help me to know what they were searching for.

[OldWelshGuy]

Fluid dynamics is a fantastic script and it has a self instal facility.


Connie
To narrow down the search results, go into the admin panel into 'user interface' and change the default match to 'phrase' this is the #2 . Doing this will return pages with the phrase in it, people can then change it to 'all' or any manually.

To change the text that is displayed in anything as a default you need to go into
search>searchdata>templates>english and edit strings.txt to read as you want. Open the file in dreamweaver and it will be nice and readable.

[Michael]

You say google has yet to fully index your site, but that is likely only a matter of time if you have quality content, right? So, I recommend using free google site search Shawn's tool from Digital Point:

http://www.digitalpo...m/tools/search/

You'll have to get your own google API key, but that's free and you can get it here:

http://www.google.com/apis/

Shawn's tool is great because it has great paging, formatting and does the little things like it recommends correct spelling for typos just like Google.

- Michael

[copywriter]

Thanks everyone. I don't remember who told me Atomz had spyware. I thought it was someone here, but maybe not.

This gives me lots to look into.

[Connie]

Thanks OldWelshGuy

[saulman]

Another options is to use the CGI script available from NMS at source-forge. This is free and avoids having 3rd party ads on your site.

nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml

Saul

Edited by Jill, 17 November 2004 - 01:09 PM.