Squarespace Finally Adds a Site Search Feature

By Dennis D. McDonald

My web publishing service vendor Squarespace has finally added a site search feature as a standard “widget” that can be added via an extremely easy point-and-click install procedure. To see what you get, see the search box at the left or, if you are looking at this text via a feed reader, click here. (Clicking on the “Show Advanced Search Options” link below the full-page search box allows you to target the search to a specific component within the web site.)

In general, I am quite  pleased with this feature. I have tried Technorati, Google, and Blogbar as site search features, but Squarespace is the best in terms of configuration and performance.

My only complaint: it’s been two years since I first requested this feature and after a while I figured that Squarespace simply didn’t have the wherewithal to make this work.  As a result, I was sometimes reluctant to recommend Squarespace to others. I’m glad to say, though, that I was wrong about my concerns!

Comments

[Philippe Borremans]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for sharing ! As you know I am also a big fan of Squarespace (why aren't there more Squarespace blogs like ours out there ?) but did'nt know they had this feature...

[Dennis D. McDonald]

They are a bit too quiet, I fear. Sometimes that gives people the wrong impression (which was the case with me in the past)..

[A. Casalena]

:)

Trying to fix the "quiet" thing with our new blog, new PR firm and such. I think the "quiet" element is a result of how we spent initial money on advertising which we needed to grow our core audience. We're moving beyond that, at this point.

Search took a while because we didn't want to release crap with such a core system component. I'd day a good 70% of the site search components I run across are TERRIBLE, and if you look around, you'll notice that some VERY large blogs and other sites (wayyy larger than Squarespace) continue to be missing this component due to the difficulty of implementing it well. We've got a site search that can operate accurately across multi-content types, is immediately updated, and works within PRIVATE site areas (restricted by audience permissions, etc.). I'm glad we waited instead of providing a crappy database-level search and "checking off the box" for having that feature in place.

[Colleen Bush]

I love the squarespace new search feature too. I was confused on which blog tool to use and but wanted to get going quickly, so decided on squarespace since Dennis uses it. The combination of Dennis as my "blog advisor" and squarespace as my blog tool has helped someone like me (who is not very tech savvy), set up a private company blog that works well and was easy. The addition of the search tool lets my co-workers search by their name (or project) which is a valuable feature.

[Chris Loosley]

This new feature is excellent. The dynamic indexing is a very important characteristic -- the results of a search change as soon as you change the content. This means you can move things around, or delete them, and it immediately stops producing the old (and now broken) links. This is a major flaw in more static indexing schemes, which can continue sending traffic to old pages that no longer exist for months after a site revision.

[Dennis D. McDonald]

I agree Chris - the dynamic indexing is a terrific feature.

[graybomeister]

Hi,
Yes, I'm pleased to have added the search feature, but am flummoxed when trynig to add the Google results code. I have the search Google widget set up correctly, but am struggling with the results page positioning. Just can't get it to work.

I will keeping trying.