Simple Search

I often come across interesting ideas and tools that I have no current use for but seem like they may be useful someday, so I bookmark them and hope I will recall them when needed. That process is what led to the current implementation of site search located at the bottom of each page on this blog.

At some point I came across an article on the the Google Webmaster Central Blog about enhancing a site's 404 page. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and I'm using it on this site. The required code is very short:

<script type="text/javascript">
var GOOG_FIXURL_LANG = 'en';
var GOOG_FIXURL_SITE = 'http://www.example.com'
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://linkhelp.clients.google.com/tbproxy/lh/wm/fixurl.js">
</script>

The most interesting thing about it is that it adds a search form. It doesn't actually submit a form. It simply changes the current page's location to "http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.heathanderson.net" (with the text from the text box appended) using JavaScript. This limits the Google search to (in this case) pages from my site. It is a really simple concept that I would like to think I would of eventually thought of (but probably wouldn't have).

When I needed a search for this site I decided to try this technique. So here it is, a simple search script:

<script type="text/javascript">
function simpleSearch(form) {
var q = window.encodeURIComponent(form["q"].value);
var url = "http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.heathanderson.net ";
url = url + q;window.location = url;
return false;
}
</script>
<noscript>
You can search this site using Google.
</noscript>
<form onsubmit="return simpleSearch(this)" method="get" id="searchForm">
<input type="text" size="40" name="q" placeholder="Search this site...">
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

I could have created the form element in JavaScript and appended it to the page, but that seemed more complicated than necessary. I also could have used an event handler instead of the inline onsubmit attribute, but again I point to the complexity. This way avoids most cross-browser pitfalls, and has the advantage of simplicity. I also added a link to Google inside a noscript tag for people that have JavaScript disabled.