I have a boat building forum that goes back to 2001
(1999 actually, but the earlier stuff got lost somehow).
My readers want to have a search mechanism....there
are far too many posts to search manually.
1)
I could make a simple mysql isam table and put the
text for each post into a text blob row. Then I could
use fulltext search........and I could add all kinds of
sexy, hotrod features, like search subject, search
body, search everything, search by poster,
and lots of other boat-building specific stuff
too complex to talk about here.
2)
Or I could make use of Google's site search mechanism.
That mechanism indexes pages outside the forum, which
I don't necessarily want, but I can hack the system to get
what I want........
...I can pre-load the Google site search with the "forum"
keyword, so only forum posts come back at the top
of the result pages (I tested it, it works).
So, if I use Google I have to give up on the sexy hotrod
search enhancements I could make with my own
php/mysql code. But routing all those search keywords
directly through Google might boost Google's awareness
of my forum.
Would it? That's my long winded question.
Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?
