How to allow users to search a site.

site search.

[flair]

Hello all.

I have created a website with a moderate amount of pages. I would like to implement a (free?) search engine from within the website. Ideally I would like something which looks "professional" and would be logo free (unlike phpDig).

What are some recommendations?

[jfodale]

I've used sphider in the past and that worked quite well. Requires a database I think and takes about a minute per 200 pages to index usually. For my sites, I've tested a lot of search terms and everything comes out as I would expect, so I'm pretty happy with it.

It has a text link to Sphider's page on the bottom of the results pages I beleive.

[Matt Probert]

There are Perl scripts available to provide search facilities to web sites. Be aware, however, that these can be quite CPU hungry on a standard shared hosting account, and may be more appropriate for a virtual or dedicated server.

Matt

[stapel]

As mentioned by another poster, the scripts that you can run on your own server can be very resource-intensive. That's a fancy way of saying "they can get your account shut down". I tried one out, and was very happy with it, but my host shut it down because too many of my visitors were using it.

Instead of running your own script, you might want to consider going with some third-party service. I've used FreeFind, and many people use Google. You'll have to put up with some ads, of course, but I've always found the FreeFind ads to be very inobtrusive.

Hope that helps.

Eliz.

[flair]

I wish to thank you very much for the information provided. It is very much appreciated.

[mack]

One such script that is very popular, and can be used in it's shareware version is fluid dynamics search engine.

It is pretty easy to set up and use. It can be easily configured to suit your needs.

Mack.

[stapel]

mack said:

One such script that is very popular, and can be used in it's shareware version is fluid dynamics search engine. It is pretty easy to set up and use.

The FDSE is a very nice script, and I can confirm that it was very easy to set up. However, as mentioned, it likely won't suffice if you've got a busy site.

Eliz.

[Animated]

how about PHP & MYSQL