I recently evaluated the search requests made using the search form in the sidebar. It showed that a lot of visitores used it for more than just content searches. So I updated the search form to help everyone to find what he or she is looking for.
one search form – four searches
The analysis showed that many of you are entering their letters into the search form in the sidebar. This never worked before, but was used anyway. There were also a lot of requests for word information. Normally, you could use the word search form for this, but I have to admit that it is not easy to find.
Until now, the search form in the sidebar was ment to find only articles and pages. Since I am always improving the usability of word-grabber.com I wanted to help you find what you are searching for. So from now on it is possible to search for almost anything using the single form in the sidebar.
Unfortunately, the search is not smart enough to distinct whether you are searching for a term in the content, a word profile, words for Scrabble or words for Words With Friends. There is one button for each of this four options. If you just hit the return key, the search will be performed on the content.
Update: I just added a poll for this new feature to learn what you think about it. Thank you for your feedback.
The new search in the sidebar is…
Update (February 27th): poll closed
I just closed the poll. Thank you for your participation. It didn’t surprise me to find a lot of voters being surprised by this new features and haven’t used it so far. 7% reported the search being broken and 10% being to complex, but none of them came back to me with feedback. So I am quite in the dark how to improve this feature. Anyway, I am already working on a better layout.
Update (March 4th): layout changed
I just uploaded some layout changes to the search form in the sidebar. The buttons are inside the form and it takes less space now. I also added some default texts for each of the search options.