D&D Wiki talk:Searching

Google is better

Could we offer Google in addition to the current search tool? I've found it works better in most cases. --Cúthalion 17:28, 6 February 2007 (MST)

We've attempted that, it did not seem to function well. Do you know of a way to do it?--Cypresslyshra 17:33, 6 February 2007 (MST)

Not offhand, but I'll take that as a challenge. I'm presuming if I figure it out, I'll have to get a sys admin to install it in the sidebar. --Cúthalion 17:35, 6 February 2007 (MST)

Determine how, and then talk to Green Dragon--Cypresslyshra 17:45, 6 February 2007 (MST)

Google Search... Blue Dragon was going to give it some time and make it work however he just recently he implemented a new Wikimedia search which I think is very good (it is by relevance and better than Wikipedia's "by relevance" search). Another reason Google might not be the best idea is I am not sure sure if they have the entire D&D Wiki indexed. However, I do not think it would hurt to make it an option, so if you want to give it the time go ahead and make it work, I will be more than happy to add it to D&D Wiki. --Green Dragon 12:04, 7 February 2007 (MST)

AdSense

It sounds like Blue Dragon may know more about this than I do. The only way I can think to do it is to set up an AdSense account. That would then give you the code for a site-specific search box (what we're discussing) and/or an all-internet search box, which you could place anywhere, including the sidebar. I presume the revenue, if any, could be channeled the same place donations go. --Cúthalion 12:40, 12 February 2007 (MST)

I have already set up an AdSense account and tried out the custom web search. The main thing is, Lucene search (which is what is currently used) is currently better than Google's free search engine (I have compared them with several different tests). If D&D Wiki gets large enough, I will probably dedicate a separate server to index and serve up Lucene queries, but right now this seems to be the best bet. Let me know if you really want to see how well Google performs on D&D Wiki. --Blue Dragon 14:32, 12 February 2007 (MST)

1. The built-in search has been working better for me today. I don't know if that's because of your recent changes, or just coincidence.
2. I still find many occasions when Google finds something that Lucerne doesn't.

I'd advocate offering both, but it's not that big a deal. --Cúthalion 14:45, 12 February 2007 (MST)

I say just Lucerne for the moment. Google is beginning to like D&D Wiki more (with over 1000+ visitors a day it is hard not to) so a Google search may be implemented sometime. Maybe something like what Wikipedia does (no results = Google option) could be used? --Green Dragon 00:01, 13 February 2007 (MST)

Here's an example. Searching for "powerful build" with the current search box is useless. Searching with Google shows all the pages that use the phrase, at least those that Google has gotten around to indexing. --Cúthalion 09:05, 13 February 2007 (MST)

Google Indexing

This raises another point. My recollection is that there's a mechanism (I can't remember what it is) for an AdSense user to tell Google that your website has changed, and should be reindexed. This might be worth doing on a regular basis, regardless of whether we add a Google search box. I don't know if there's a way to do it automatically -- that would obviously be the ideal. --Cúthalion 09:05, 13 February 2007 (MST)

This is done using Sitemaps, and D&D Wiki is currently doing that. --Blue Dragon 20:20, 15 February 2007 (MST)

Okay. I guess Google just takes a while to catch up sometimes. Thanks. --Cúthalion 20:50, 15 February 2007 (MST)

Index updating fixed

The index update script had crashed awhile back without me noticing, and so there had been no updates to the Lucene index. This problem has now been fixed, and indexing will occur at the start of every hour. --Blue Dragon 15:02, 12 February 2007 (MST)

Thanks. --Green Dragon 00:02, 13 February 2007 (MST)