[thelist] Site search - what do ya know?

[Jono]

> I've researched all the 3rd party search engines and came to the
> conclusion that... I highly recommend Wrensoft's Zoom Search Engine... If
> anybody has found a better solution, I'd like to see it.

" GrowSearch is a beautifully simple plug-in that does exactly what it says
on the tin. It was created with accessibility, web standards and flexibility
for designers or developers firmly in mind. Now its available for everyone
to use for the nominal charge of £1!"

I wouldn't say that this is a better option (by any means), but it has
potential to be better - if you can work with PHP a bit.  It is also VERY
inexpensive... And very worth the price.

http://www.gr0w.com/amos/growsearch/

It's a site search and site map all in one, all for £1, which was under $2
when I purchased it for a site I was working on at the time.

Pros:
* Quick and Easy to set up
* Priced ridiculously well
* Automatic Sitemap feature built in
* Easy  to customize (easier if you know PHP)
* Installation instructions are straight forward
* Well commented PHP code
* Easy to configure what to search and not search
* Easy to configure sitemap to show or ignore files/folders
* License is one time purchase and then use it as much as you want

Cons:
* Search is weak at times (I could have goofed it up?)
* Support is pretty poor.  I posted a question on their site, and it was
deleted, and brushed off.  They were busy, so it's understandable, but not
really excusable.

I wrote to the company and asked if they minded if I customized their code,
but I did not get a response.  I think that anyone with a good understanding
of PHP could really make this search work much better.

If any one is interested in taking a stab at customizing the search to work
better, or differently, I'd love to know about it.  Maybe contact me off
list and we can discuss it as I am not good enough with PHP (yet) to do it
on my own.

See Gr0w Search & Sitemap in action on a site I recently redesigned:
http://tinyurl.com/py89o

The search feature on the Gr0w Website seems to work better than my
implementation - so either I messed something up when I installed the
script, or they use a more robust version on their site?



-- 
Jono Young
Designer | Developer | Illustrator
Charleston Web Solutions
"Bringing Higher Standards to the Lowcountry"
http://www.charlestonwebsolutions.com/