I was just asked this question in a comment by David Airey:
I’m trying to improve the search feature on my blog. I was using the ’search everything’ plugin, to incorporate text in comments, but in the end I’m thinking this might be a bad idea – because the search then pulls in more random posts.
And it made me wonder: who actually uses the ‘search box’ on other people’s blogs?
Speaking personally, the only search box on a blog I use is my own, in order to find older posts. I have never used anyone else’s search box within their blog – If I’m looking for something in particular, I’ll Google it and find the info that way. At a stretch I guess I’d use Google to specifically search a particular website, but I’ve found the plain WordPress search box to be so dumb the results are usually worthless.
So, do you use blog search boxes? Have you ever used mine? Or do you just head straight for Google? Lets have a quick poll:
Does anyone have any suggestions for David to improve his search function? Let me have your thoughts.
12 users commented in " How Do You Search? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks for this, Chris. I guess I want to improve the search feature for myself as much as readers, because like you, I use my search box to find old content I’ve published and want to link to in a more recent post.
Off-topic, my blog is located at davidairey.com (no need for the /blog directory).
Cheers buddy.
ps. and off-topic again, I’ve subscribed to comments, and find what I once did here, that your check-box is located way at the bottom of the screen, nowhere near the ‘submit comment’ button. Thought you’d like to know.
I use Google search. I think Google search is nowadays most powerful Search Option which owned nobody else (the smartest search engine).
I installed a plugin on my site that tracks what people search for. It was quite interesting reading (see the article on my name).
The plugin I used was Search Meter and I think it works really well. I think you’ll be surprised about what people are searching for.
Personally the only time I use search on blogs is when they are sites I have visited before and I know what I want to find.
I’d thought about incorporating a Google search into my site. Am I right in saying that you can also make some income from people using a Google search on your site, then clicking a sponsored result?
Off to check out that Search Meter plugin. Thanks Ben.
I sometimes do use a blog’s search feature to find an older post .
I’ve been very frustrated, over the past couple of days, trying to find specific posts on blogs with no search box. It may be rare, but from my perspective, if I can’t find it, I can’t link to it, and that’s bad for both me and whomever owns the blog I’d love to be searching.
(Yes. I know Google has site-specific search. I refuse to use Google search, for reasons I won’t go into here.)
David: yes, Google has AdSense for Search.
Another option, for those who (like me) can’t code, is using a Technorati search box, which has an option for blog-specific results.
Hi Sam,
If it’s AdSense for search then I’ll not have anything to do with it. AdSense is one of my pet peeves.
Cheers guys.
I agree that a search box is necessary, I just don’t find the current ones very good, so it’s good to hear the alternatives.
Adsense for search: I believe that when used the list of results are displayed in the usual Google way: if a searcher then clicks on one of the sponsored links you get paid, though I could be wrong…
Sounds like a good plugin Ben, I shall have a read of the article.
Sorry about the link David, sheer laziness about using a the auto-complete function of WP, I didn’t check where it was going….
And thanks for the subscription info: I’d fixed this in the past, but when I updated the plugin, I forgot to edit it again. Ironically, I now have to use the search function of my blog to find the post where I wrote up the solution……
I consider a site search one of the most important features of a blog that has any significant amount of archive posts. Blogs with 100 posts don’t have nearly the concerns of those with 1,000 or more archived posts.
Using Google to search a blog is better than nothing at all but I prefer most blog-specific search engines. Google doesn’t work as good for blogs with lots of archived posts in my experience.
For the reasons you mentioned, I use the blog search, but I’ve found others will use it more if you make it more like search results. I’ve tweaked the blog search of our main blog to do a lot of things including outputting in opensearch format, allowing the ability to subscribe via RSS by any keyword(s), etc.
@David Airey: The Google Search thing isn’t any different than the regular Google search other than the fact that you get paid if someone clicks on the sponsored links.
I have it on my site. I make a little off of it, but not as much as someone might think. The results from searching my blog are much more specific. I use it myself when looking for an obscure piece of information that I know I wrote but can’t remember where.
It’s pretty easy to put into place. I invite anyone to see how I have it implemented.
I use search boxes on blogs, but usually on blogs I read more regularly and I’m looking for a particular older post. I also like to see categories listed somewhere which often narrows things down for people maybe just skimming through or seeking information in particular areas.
I think the search on my own blog works reasonably well, but it’s not a WordPress blog, it runs on NucleusCMS.
Yeah, I think I’m leaning towards a Google search box, more for it’s functionality than any money making opps.
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