Search Forum With Google...

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009.

  1. #1
    Google has been terribly fast at indexing things here lately (like within 5 minutes after you post a thread, it's in their index). So I made an option for the vBulletin search menu to search Google (you can still search the old way as well if you want).

    I also haven't figured out why the search results aren't adhering to the colors I want, but too tired to figure that out atm.
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
    nihangshah and DomainMagnate like this.
  2. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Thats a great addon for DP. Hopefully it will help the users that have issues finding the stuff they want ;)

    Looking forward to using it!
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  3. MrHarper

    MrHarper Guest

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    #3
    I noticed the speed too. I didn't know it was actually possible for pages to be indexed so fast :eek:

    Nice addition. I'll never use the VB search again, Google is God. :)
     
    MrHarper, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  4. Smyrl

    Smyrl Tomato Republic Staff

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    #4
    And lo and behold this thread is already indexed. That Googlebot is one fast creature.
     
    Smyrl, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  5. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #5
    Has anyone had any experience with a Google Custom Search Engine that doesn't follow the colors you choose? Kinda bugging me now...
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  6. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Nah.. I only used it while hosting at google.. And the colour scheme + logo where all as set in the configuration.

    I also noticed that the display url in the search results is only for the top domain (and sub domain).. Is that on purpose?
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  7. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #7
    No, but I don't think Google allows you to change it to show the full URL for some reason (been annoying me too).
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  8. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #8
    I also noticed that if you perform the standard search and then chose "perform the same search on google" it opens an outside hosted search result with the correct colour scheme and that displays the full url in the search results..
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  9. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #9
    I figured it out... apparently internally Google is returning the short and long URL with the short URL displayed by default and the long URL hidden by default. I just reversed that...
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  10. RightMan

    RightMan Notable Member

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    #10
    Wow...this update seems to display the result page perfectly...and in our own DP theme color, making the search result look lot more homely! :)

    Thanks....

    Regards,

    RightMan
     
    RightMan, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  11. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Works great now!

    Its probably going to give DPs monthly AS income a nice nudge upwards ;)
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  12. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #12
    Eh, I wouldn't count on the AS income... people don't click ads in forums generally. :)
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  13. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Still.. The search ads are more relevant to each user search and in general pay a considerably larger PPC.

    Consider a user searching the forums for some product.. Now he gets targetted ads directly to his keyword search.. I guess it remains to be seen how much it will mean, but its a good move making it the default option.
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  14. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #14
    Well the main reason had nothing to do with being able to give the user ads. I've just been noticing threads being in Google's index within 4-5 minutes of them being posted and it's simply a way to offload work from our database servers (typically searches are the most resource intensive pages the database server feeds up).
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  15. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #15
    Yup.. And from just using it here a bit I am finding it extremely superior to the internal search. So kudos for implementing it.

    But I really believe that you will see a noticable increase in AS revenue. Its great for us users as well since we get relevant internal and external results. So everybody wins..
     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  16. WebEvader

    WebEvader Well-Known Member

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    #16
    Hmm... I don't really like this, can you make it so that the original VB search is still the default option when you search the forum ?

    Is there anyway in which i can do that via the CP ?

    Thanks ;)
     
    WebEvader, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  17. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #17
    At this point no... but will probably make it a user-selectable option when I get around to it.
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  18. promo

    promo Well-Known Member

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    #18
    When you select the search drop down option, if you click the area just right of the "use google" tick box, it will revert to standard search.

     
    promo, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  19. WebEvader

    WebEvader Well-Known Member

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    #19
    Yea i know, but it is quite tedious when you are doing lots of searches... ;)
     
    WebEvader, Jul 21, 2009 IP
  20. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #20
    I have to agree with this. It's so much work having to do an extra click to use normal search. :D (harder to use google search)
     
    dcristo, Jul 21, 2009 IP