The Best Searches in Life Are Free

Even if your web site is blessed with a solid navigation system, where visitors can find what they need in a few clicks, therell always be the hurried few who prefer to type a word or phrase and do a quick search. Experts agree that a site search is a must-have navigational element for sites of any size.

Dont have a site search? Not a problem, even if youre without programming resources or a lot of cash to throw at a solution. There are plenty of online providers who will do this for you. And do it well. For free.

We tested four of the leading free search engine providers, all of whom offer feature-rich, but slightly different, packages. All you do is sign up, answer some customization questions, and you can have a working search engine for your site in under an hour. The provider does all the heavy lifting -- their servers host your index files and their programs perform the searches -- at no cost to you. What a world in which we live!

Atomz (http://www.atomz.com)

For us, Atomzs finest feature is its best-of-breed search results customization. While others merely let you change certain attributes (logo, title, background, text and link colors), Atomz allows you wrap your own HTML around the search results. You can make it appear that your searching visitor has never left the site. Or, you can start with one of their templates for a themed look-and-feel.

Another killer feature from Atomz is its flexible re-indexing. Not only can you schedule a weekly re-indexing of your site, you can re-index on demand. This is especially useful if the content of your site changes frequently. We also like the email reports that rank and graph your visitors search words and phrases. You can schedule these reports to be sent to you daily, weekly or monthly.

A drawback is their 500-page limit. Paid plans which offer more capacity (as well as other features) start at $500/year.

FreeFind.com (http://www.freefind.com)

If your site is relatively large, FreeFind might be the one for you. The free package will max out at around 3,000 pages. If your sites bigger than that, you shouldnt even be reading this article. Step outside for some fresh air. Delegate.

One fine thing is the "Whats New" list, something your repeat visitors might appreciate.

More good news - on-demand and flexible re-indexing schedules, regular reports, and an optional web (vs. site) search. Mildly bad news - banner ads and an automatically generated site map that we found a bit south of useful.

Google (http://www.google.com)

Google is famous as a Web search engine that delivers very high quality search results. Now you can bring that same quality to your site in a matter of minutes. Notable Google features are an optional web search, the ability to index multiple domains, and a cool name.

A few things disappointed us. A big downer was not only the lack of on-demand re-indexing, but that you have no control over when your sites index is updated. As Google admits, "updates are determined by Google and there is no guarantee of pages crawled."

Re-indexing seems to happen about once a month. That might work for RipVanWinkle.com. If your site changes frequently, look elsewhere for the perfect search tool.

Customization options are limited, and banner ads will probably show up in your search results. But hey, the search results ARE high quality. And the name is cool.

Pico Search (http://www.picosearch.com)

PicoSearch places second in capacity, indexing up to 1,500 pages. No banner ads, either. They offer on-demand but, strangely, no scheduled re-indexing. Multiple site searching is an option.

Customization, as with Google and FreeFind, is limited to modifiable attributes like background, fonts and colors. The PicoSearch user interface, though functional, is straight out of the nineties.

Summary

Features common to these providers include easy sign-up and immediate indexing. They all allow you to exclude portions of your site from searches. Also, they offer priced packages with advanced customization, more robust features, greater indexing capacity and removal of banner ads and/or branding.

Which do you choose? Start by asking yourself these questions: How many pages does my site have? How often is my site updated (and how often would it need to be re-indexed)? Is integration with my site important, so that it looks like the visitor never left my site during the searching process? It could be that none of these free providers meets all of your criteria, but probably one will work better for you than the others.

Take a few hours and test-drive one or more. Remember, theyre free. And theyre easy to set up.

Alternatives

There are smaller players you can check out if you have way too much free time. Here are two:

http://www.searchbutton.com

http://siteminer.mycomputer.com

If you like to control everything on your own server and do the work yourself, go for it. Download a free or low-cost pre-made CGI or PHP program from one of these script resources:

http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Searching/

http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Searching/

http://www.scriptsearch.com/pages/l4c3c45.shtml

Some programming experience is required, and youll have to make sure that the CGI or PHP program you choose will work with your hosting account. If youre not sure, check with your host provider.

Happy site searching!

by Keith Reichley February, 2001

About the Author

Keith Reichley is webmaster for webthejoint.com, the web resource center for small business.

:To contact Keith online see details below.


keith@webthejoint.com
http://www.webthejoint.com