RTMM Search Now in Testing

[Dan]

Hey all!  I have added a new feature to the site that many folks were requesting (understandably so!). 

We now have search capability on the site, utilizing Google's indexing of the site.  This should help you find things that you want throughout the site.   For instance, if those chopper pilots want to guarantee that a place will have a suitable landing pad, they can simply run a search for it.     Looking for docks?   You should be covered!   looking for beer recommendations?  .. well, that might not be in yet (but you can PM me for some, I have a number of ones that I enjoy )

I have not put the search on the forum header yet, so please head over to the [main site] and note the search button in the top-right of the page.    Give it a click, and search for what you want.   Kick the tires for us, and let me know if you run into any issues.     

Since this is Google-powered, we're kind of at the mercy of their results (which look to be pretty great as far as I can tell, and you never leave the RTMM site), however, there is one thing that I want to be completely transparent about.. As I noted on the search page itself:

We've always said that RTMM will remain ad-free and supported by donations, and I believe this is the way it should continue, but to leverage Google's search prowess we have no choice on the search results page.
We do NOT make money off those ads, they are google ads. (it's how they make their money an can provide free custom search utility like this)
To block ads, I suggest using one add-on for Google Chrome, or Firefox:

-- Chrome: AdBlock Plus
-- Firefox: AdBlock Plus

Edit: For those of you that don't mind if we had ads that supported us, and wanted to support the site, I added the donate link on the search page.  All donations go to covering hosting costs (we have improved our hosting plan in the last year, but it costs a bit more).   RTMM will always be free, but thanks for considering donating, and a big thank you to all that have donated in the past, we covered all costs in 2014!   

[dexthom]

Works for me.  A very useful too... 

[Doug]

Thanks Dan, looks great and works great. We have so much in the site, the new folks are overwhelmed, this will help all of us,

D

[Dan]

Also, to note, the search is not on the forum header.  This is because the forum actually has a built-in search functionality.      Since the forum and the main site are on different sub-domains (for performance reasons), the search button does not search forums.   You need to use the [forum search] for this.

I'll look into better ways to handle this, but as for right now, the main site search only covers the RTMM core site, and not forums.

Thanks.
-d