WordPress’ built-in search isn’t fantastic; this isn’t news to anyone. But what could be news to some of you is the recent launch of the yolink Search for WordPress plugin, that hopes to improve the WordPress search experience by integrating their cloud-based search engine.
yolink itself is search technology from TigerLogic that can be used in other applications via their API. yolink is a paid service, and using it for commercial purposes or for indexing more than 50 pages of content might require you take a look at their pricing structure. If WPCandy wanted to use their search API, for instance, we would need to pay $100/month.
The new yolink Search for WordPress plugin has been developed and released in partnership with WPEngine and is now available in its 1.0 version. Along with indexing content and providing improved search results, yolink will optionally add social sharing options to search content, as shown in their demo video just after the jump.
The best way to see what yolink does without trying it out is watching their demo video:
The plugin can be downloaded from the WordPress.org plugin directory, and an API key snagged from the yolink website. If you’ve tried out this plugin, or another that claims to improve WordPress’ default search, share your experience in the comments.
I don’t know. Search Everything works pretty awesome.
Very cool, but not too affordable. There any similar free/cheap alternatives?
Relevanssi is a very powerful new search plugin that I’m using across several sites now. The premium version is $40/yr and the free version is, well, free.
You could also look at Google Custom Search
It can target just your site, and is free as long as you’re okay w/ a couple text ads at the top. I think it’s $100 / year or so to remove the ads.
An other option could be to use Solr for wordpress plugin and get a Solr server instance on http://www.mysolrserver.com. This Solr hosting service proposes Solr ready to use instance with Solr for wordpress plugin.
I just released a new plugin, for an improved search with more relevant results on WordPress blogs / websites: WP-ISE; the lite version (the core engine itself) is available for free on wordpress.org: WP-ISE Lite and on the WP-ISE website: WP-ISE.