Read More →]]> Iconic web developer resource directory expands beyond scripts into web services, code snippets, APIs, plugins and hosted applications.

iNET Interactive, a web-centric media company serving special interest communities through prominent online properties, events, and publications, today announced the much-anticipated site-wide update of its iconic web development resource directory, Hot Scripts. Since its inception in 1998, HotScripts has undergone multiple refreshes to keep pace with the rapidly changing web development industry and the evolving needs of millions of visitors including webmasters, developers and site owners.

The new HotScripts’ addresses emerging technology and market forces by introducing two popular development categories: Plugins and Hosted Applications. The Hosted Applications category covers a wide range of web services related to web development that could be implemented via APIs or used as hosted or SaaS applications. The new plugins category features add-ons and plugins for popular open source projects like WordPress, Magento and Joomla.

In addition to showcasing new web development categories, HotScripts’ user interface was significantly enhanced to improve usability and resource findability. The new design incorporates stronger search capabilities and a more intuitive information architecture that effectively compartmentalizes the different web development resources into logical categories.

“The new version of HotScripts enables it to showcase more than its 48,000 web scripts by integrating new web development resources and making it the one-stop shop for web developers”, stated Ahmad Permessur, Product Manager for Hot Scripts. “Through adding a wide array of new resources including web applications, code snippets, APIs, plugins and hosted applications as well as a significantly enhanced user interface, web developers can rely on HotScripts to serve their expanding needs.”

“The new HotScripts quickly caught the attention of loyal members and the feedback has been outstanding”, added Ahmad.

About Hot Scripts

Launched in 1998, Hot Scripts is a comprehensive Web directory of more than 48,000 web development and programming-related resources. Hot Scripts serves webmasters, developers, business owners, marketers, coders and programmers, who are looking to build, enhance or improve their Web sites and intranets.

About NET Interactive

Founded in 2002, iNET Interactive (www.iNETinteractive.com) is a web-centric media company serving special interest communities through prominent online properties, events, and publications. Its media properties incorporate user-contributed ratings, reviews, and discussion augmented with professionally-produced content.

Read More →]]> 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!