Hot Scripts search results now enhanced by Google

We here at iNET are proud to announce a significant upgrade to the Hot Scripts search engine. In order to return more relevant search results at a much faster pace, we decided to integrate a Google Mini Search Appliance into the site. This decision was easy; Google has made its name by perfecting the way data is indexed and searched, so why not let that expertise and technology power the Hot Scripts search engine?

Here are some of the improvements that Hot Scripts users will see:

• Google-ized relevancy: Search results are now much more relevant to the search queries thanks to the Google relevancy algorithms.
• Searches are MUCH faster. Additionally, the intermediate “please wait” screen has been removed.
• The interface has been cleaned up and simplified so that interaction with the search results is easier.
• An additional License Type filter has been added. Now you can filter search results by the type of license: All, Free, or Commercial.
• User searches are now cached for better performance. If you go back and search for the same term a second time, the site doesn’t need to query the Google Mini again.

The Development Process
Plugging in the Google Mini was a fun experience. Google has gone great lengths to ensure that the process is painless. The Mini provides two ways of getting the result set: you can let the appliance serve up the results in a customizable template, or you can request the results be returned in XML. In the case of HotScripts, we went the XML route since some post-processing of the result sets is necessary to accommodate our sponsored listings. The XML that the search appliance generates is very robust and well documented.

The appliance itself is no slouch, either. Before launching, we went performed some stress testing to make sure that the Mini could keep up with the HotScripts search traffic. The Mini didn’t skip a beat during any of our tests; it handled even the heaviest loads with ease. Overall, I was very impressed with the ease of use of the Mini. Google support was also very helpful.

Try the search out for yourself and let us know what you think!