Latest release: Have you been SEARCHing for something?

Well, we found it for you! Blogside search is now available for all TypePad bloggers. As simple as clicking on a button, you can add a search box that allows your readers to search posts, pages AND comments on your blog. TypePad Search will serve the results right in your blog's design, keeping the look and feel consistent to your layout, headers and footers. That means no more twiddling with the customization options from 3rd party providers like Google or Lijit.

Here's what it looks like on Everything TypePad:

 

To add this little gem to your blog, go to (Design > Content > Search) or visit the Knowledge Base article for advanced template codes. It's that simple. We think the new search feature makes for a professional finish to every blog and will help your visitors find exactly what they are looking for.

Scavenger Hunt

To celebrate this awesome new addition to the TypePad platform, we propose a scavenger hunt using nothing but TypePad search as your guide.

Three members of the TypePad Team have offered up their blogs for the hunt. The game is simple and the prizes are enormous (kind of)!

Create the funniest sentence you can from the words/name you find with the following clues and leave it the comments:

• Take One Big boy who's "wizard" on Tiff's blog:
• Add that to the artist who sang about "jail" on Kimmie's blog
• and times that by the title of a post on the waltpad about an "ipad"

This is a game of skill.  It will be measured scientifically in decibels of laughter it provokes in Kimmie (who hardly ever laughs, by the way, so it's gotta be reeeeally good!) The loudest LOL wins - a $30 itunes voucher.

Happy Hunting!

P.S. There are of course other fabulous features in this release including the blogside toolbar and category RSS feeds! Give them all a try and let us know what you think in the comments.

Comments

[kimmi8]

Right. Bah humbug, no laughing.

[A Twitter User]

Thanks. This is much better than the Google search we were using previously.

[Account Deleted]

Wow, love the new search. It actually FIND THINGS!!! Thank you! And the results look so nice! I was frustrated with Lijit and Google.

[The BECA Foundation]

After adding the widget to our blog, the search box appears but when someone types something into it from the Google Chrome browser in order to do a search, a page pops up that says the blog doesn't exist...we've removed the 'search' box for now.

[Lydia]

One advantage of Lijit is the ability to monetize the search. Are you planning to offer monetization in the future?

[Agnes]

Awesome!

[kimmi8]

Thanks for the feedback Lydia. It is something we're looking into for future iterations of search.

[kimmi8]

Thanks for the feedback. Seems like this is an issue with Google Chrome and how it interacts with the search box? Were you able to look at it in another browser?

[Kofla Olivieri]

I am still not clear on this feature. Does the search box that allows my readers to search posts, pages AND comments only works specifically in my blog?

[Rachel Leonard]

Finally - thank you!

[Peter]

To steal another's advertising phrase, "That was Easy!" But, when I look at it on the site, I am left thinking "Search, what?"

I was looking for a way to move away from Google, and this does it. But, at least Google was clear where you were searching and offered a choice of blog or Web. I can do without the Web option, but I would like to see something more obvious in the button that you are searching the blog, only.

[Miriam R Kaye]

great idea!

[Birdbabyface]

I would like to advertise but wondering where the baby boom gone ?

[Anastasia]

Just brilliant!

[Anastasia]

Yes, Kofla. It works!!! Try it!

[MELANCHOLIA]

Great tool, thanks a lot!

[A Twitter User]

I agree with Peter, it would be really nice if there was a way to change the text label so that it didn't just say search. It should say search "blog name".

[Account Deleted]

It's a cool gadget ....but can you just make a better headline like "Search My Blog Content" because currently, the term "Search" is kinda vague....Search what?

[samjien]

Glad to have this up and running ^^. Keep it up typepad. :)

[Cookie!]

Thank you! It's nice to have a search thingy that goes with my layout instead of that ugly box that Google had offered us. This will make it much easier for my readers to find things in my blog.

Oh, and I like the button as is. If it's a search thingy in my blog, I would assume it would only search my blog.

Kimmie never laughs? I see a new mission in life. ;^)

[The Diet Guy]

A much better result than Google search or Lijit and as I don't wish to monetarize from the search results this is perfect!

10 out of 10 for Typepad :-)

[Account Deleted]

A welcome feature, and I'm looking forward to all the bugs being worked out. I submitted a ticket to customer support regarding this.

[Bill Van Loan]

Nice work! Thank you so much...

[James Gray]

is there a way to adjust the width? I would like it to be consistent with the width of my sidebar on http://www.infotechleader.com

[Susan Bonaci]

Fantastic! I've been wondering where I could find this feature.

[samjien]

Hello Typepad, the search box feature is great. But, won't it be greater if we can customize the look and create something like this?
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7743/searchxo.png is that possible? and also, i agree with what others have been saying about the "search label". It would be great if there's a specification about searching the blog only or the web. :)

[The Handmade Project]

Great!

[Sara Pepitone]

I love this, but does getting rid of the Google search mean losing rank in Google?

[kimmi8]

You can customize the search box with CSS.

[kimmi8]

Google search is a search tool provided by Google. It does not have any effect on your blog pages or search indexing. Rank in Google is mostly affiliated with the things that you do around SEO for your blog.

[Claire Alcock]

Delighted you like it!

[Claire Alcock]

Don't they look great? I love the images that appear alongside the results - really engaging - makes the reader explore a little further than they might before.

[Claire Alcock]

Thanks Agnes :)

[Claire Alcock]

Great idea Peter. We'll look into this.

[Claire Alcock]

Thanks for the high marks Diet Guy! So pleased it works for you.

[Claire Alcock]

Hi James, You can customize the width of the search box using CSS. If you need help with this our support team should be able to help.

[Claire Alcock]

Thanks for sending in your feedback Brinstar - much appreciated.

[Sara Pepitone]

Thank you

[btn]

I am torn between the better search results of the official TypePad "Search Module" versus the "Featured: Lijit Search" widget's Popular Searches cloud. Also, do we get any search stats? I don't care about monetizing my search, but Lijit's search stats can be fascinating. Thanks! P.S. +1 to commenters who have already suggested that we should be able to customize the header.

[TomATS]

I was hoping someone wold make this suggestion for renaming the text label. Please make sure it does not require having Advanced Templates to do it.

[Account Deleted]

Absolutely fantastic!! This search facility is sooooo much better than the Google search I was using, and the ability to tailor the design is just brilliant. A totally brilliant update, Typepad, thank you!!

[Liz@ThisFullHouse]

Love that folks can search for my stuff right on MY blog -- would be nice to have the option of publishing "without" the title:

Search (title) [entry box] Search (button)

Mine is at the top right sidebar -- IMO, it would a lot cleaner.

Still, I love it :)

[@xannov]

I've just tried the search widget on two websites running from Typepad templates. Both of them show the search box, with the "search' button below, not to the right of the box. The columns are from your standard themes.
Is there anyway you can scale the search box so that the box and button both fit on the same line and look more professional than appearing on two lines?

[Account Deleted]

I do like this search feature but I will have to agree with the others, I asked too "Search what?"

[@xannov]

Can I add to the previous comment I left - the advanced template code is great in that it allows me to add this feature to AT blogs too, but the results page does not appear using the same style as the rest of the blog it is searching. Is there a way to define how the search results page should look?

[Stephanie, Principal Paper Addict]

So glad to finally be able to have a simple, easy search tool that only searches my site --- and searches it thoroughly! Our readers are excited to have this feature too! Simple with no gimics is good!

[SpiritPathNow]

I'm currently using Lijit and love the stats but I would switch over just to get the YELLOW HIGHLIGHT of where the search word appears in the post. It shows the words highlighted in your sample above and in TIFF's Blog --- but it does not show up in the other two sample blogs you list and it doesn't show up when I install it on my blog. How do I get that highlighting???

[RobiNZ]

It's really good to see Category Feeds. Been on my wishlist for a long time.

[Claire Alcock]

Hi James - here's some more information on how to customize from our Knowledge Base

http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/search.html

[Claire Alcock]

Hi Samjien, here are some tips on how to customize the search bar for our Plus and Unlimited customers.
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/search.html

[Claire Alcock]

Great feedback, thanks, here are some tips on customization
http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/search.html

[Claire Alcock]

Webmaster - check out these tips on customizing the width

http://help.sixapart.com/tp/us/search.html

[Claire Alcock]

Robin - great spot! What else is on your wishlist?

[kimmi8]

Currently there are no search stats but that's something we'd like to add in the future.

[kimmi8]

Thanks for the feedback, glad you're loving it! :)

[kimmi8]

The search results pages *should* appear in the same style as the rest of the blog. May be something with how your template modules are set up? Best thing to do is to submit a ticket to our Support team so they can look at your blog for you.

[Walt Grayson]

Hi Lisa,

When I view search results on your blog I'm seeing the yellow search term highlighting. As in this search for the term "april":

http://bit.ly/b0L3Q0

Please let us know if you're still having trouble. Thanks. :)

Also, thanks for pointing out the issue with the other sample blogs. Kimmie's blog (and anyone else's that uses the same theme) will be fixed in the next release. And my blog is fixed as well.

[@xannov]

I did find a way to sort this in the end. I mentioned it on a blog post; http://www.digital-teacher.co.uk/2010/04/changes-to-search.html

Long winded, but it works!

[@xannov]

Thanks Claire - I sorted out a solution; http://www.digital-teacher.co.uk/2010/04/changes-to-search.html it works, which is good :)

[kimmi8]

Those instructions are wicked! Thank you so much for taking the time to document it for other TypePad members. We really appreciate it. Sorry it wasn't easier to figure out the inner workings of templates with search.

[James Gray]

Claire - this is perfect, just what I was looking for! Thanks for being proactive - TypePad is awesome....

[RobiNZ]

TypePad HTML Email

My wish list is pretty dated, from 2006! About the only things
outstanding are:

·
Better media integration (like Vox has)

·
Integration of photo services like Flickr (instead of TypePad
photo albums).

·
An Explorer like file manager so can easier upload, find,
replace files like media. Ever tried to find a file in the TypePad File system?

·
Allow full backup of the posts and related files (rather than
current just post text content)

You can see it here: http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2006/10/sixapart_its_ti.html

[Tipper]

Just added the search feature-I love how the results have thumbnail photos beside them-very neat! THANK YOU!!

[Will Kenny, Best Consulting Practices]

I assume the scope of this is a particular blog, that is, the folder in which the blog resides? In other words, I have more than one blog, technically, running in different folders, simplyl so I can vary the design among pages. I assume this search would only look in the folder where its parent blog resides.

This also becomes relevant because I have some pages -- I use TypePad for the entire web site, including static pages -- that people only see, say, to confirm that they have signed up for my e-newsletter. I'd like to know that those are not getting searched.

[Martina Tierney]

Wonderful Typepad! Thank you. Going to try the Facebook 'like' button today...

[SpiritPathNow]

O.K., I looked at your http://bit.ly/b0L3Q0 sample and I see the "April" highlighted in the first two results but not in the last two results shown because the searched word appears lower in the article than what the excerpt displays. When you click to expand the display to show the whole post, the occurances of the searched word are NOT highlighted.

Is there anyway to get the highlighted word displayed throughout the post or for the results?

[Zeus Technology]

perfect...have been waiting for this feature, installed and now live for the users : )

[TREE]

Great feature! How do I align the button to the right (rather than underneath) and add text to the search box. Thanks!

[Claire Alcock]

Hi Richard - you can drag and drop the box anywhere you want in Design > Content - that's as long as you have a Pro account. I think you will need access to CSS to change the copy.

[Claire Alcock]

Go Martina! Let us know how you get on!