Can you be won away from Google search?

tests (at Web Teacher) with Lijit haven't been what I wanted, either. But I've found it useful on BlogHer.

To Lijit's credit, when I wrote them about the results I was seeing, they made an effort to improve it. So far, things are no better, but I like the fact that they are responsive to my concerns.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

In addition to spidering your site on a daily basis, the site map and statistical reporting I've found very helpful too. Also, the FreeFind search is in many ways a backup of my sites and over the years, has 'been there' to keep things going during down times with my host.

I've used FreeFind myself with good success for a number of years. They index your site as often as you want and report to you as often as you want.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

Mostly because I love the interface.

I use Google for most of my searches on the web. For my own sites, I've been using http://www.FreeFind.com for eight years now! It's great.  I think Google's Custom Search Site is excellent provided your site doesn't update very often. However, or those sites that do update often, (like mine), then Google's CSE is not a good match.

For database driven sites that use MySQL, the search is first rate and certainly has the *potential* to satisfy most queries. Unfortunately, I've found that wanting your MySQL searches to be as good as the results provided by a professional search company (like FreeFind), can be quite an education and for many, simply not worth the effort. I hadn't heard of Lijit before, thanks Virginia.

-Bob

Just as one small example, I wrote a series of posts about Cooking with Fresh Herbs, same title every post, followed by the name of the herb. Yet when I search for them using Lijit, only nine of the twelve posts come up. I've also had the same lack of results searching for other topics I've written about on BlogHer.com.

I do see how the ability to search the BlogHer Network is a nice feature though, so maybe that's enough of a benefit to make it worth it.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

Alanna, those are great points about Google Custom Search Engine. Just two points that you might not know about Lijit (where I work), one is that with CSE you have to manual manage the list of sites that are included (in essence, its a subset of Google's index), and therefore all the content must meet Google's anti-spam criteria. Lijit on the other hand, automatically includes your Blogroll, and social content (which CSE does not), and assumes that all content is trusted (since its yours).

That does often create two different sets of results, and we are working very hard to make our results as relevant as possible.

In addition, if you want, you can have Lijit use Google CSE as its index of choice so that you kinda get the best of both worlds!

Would love to hear any suggestions you might have - micah@lijit.com.

Thanks you.

it's Google for you.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

-- which searches only select sites, not the entire web. It's good for communities who want to establish their own search groups, and is what we use for Food Blog Search and what I use for the search engine on my own sites. It's imperfect, I think, for that purpose (though better than Lijit whose algorithms are unclear and offer up such different results than Google that at least to my mind, it's flawed) since it ranks only by authority and offers no other sort criteria. (In contrast, Google blog search allows sorting results by authority or by date.)

 FWIW, I figured out last week that nearly all my AdSense revenue comes from the search pages so will be pulling the actual ads from my sites any day now. 

Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade ( http://kitchenparade.com/ ) &
A Veggie Venture ( http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/ )

Looks like Microsoft Word scruff. We'll just pretend it isn't there. :)

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

Sorry- have no idea what the scoop with that reply was.....?

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I agree- the specialized sites are great for those who need
them but I think the general masses will always "google it". The fact
that this word is part of our language stands to that.

I think some of the hybrid, specialized search options are fantastic, particularly when you have some specific criteria for search results. For general everyday search, I'm still a google fan, though.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )