On Sunday morning, I tried to cure two of my biggest frustrations with WhereInDE.com – improving the ability for visitors to search and find information already on the site, and reducing the number of duplicate questions submitted.  With over 450 questions in the archive, and more added every day, this is becoming more and more of an issue. I needed a solution that would provide results from the entire whereinde.com domain. The previous search tool would only look for keywords on question pages, but would not provide results from comments.

After researching a number of solutions, and after about 6 cups of coffee, I made a decision - Google Custom Search. This option leverages Google’s powerful search engine to provide results with keywords from the entire WhereInDE.com site – including static pages, and the business directory. The provided results look very similar to results provided from google.com.

To help curb the number of duplicate questions submitted, I have added a search bar to the question submit page. I am hoping that visitors will use it to find their answers before submitting a question that already exists in the archive.

Last, but not least, if you use the iGoogle homepage, you can conveniently search WhereInDE.com by adding  the WhereInDE.com custom search gadget. Pictured below, the gadget is small and simple and will provide results within a traditional Google search results window.

Depending on how widely this gadget is used, I may look into developing it further to include the most recent or most popular questions.

I hope this makes your WhereInDE.com experience slightly better. Of course, I’m always open to hearing what you think. Comment below, tweet at WhereInDE, or send me a message.

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Written by: Phil Woods