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Ask HN: What's the best way to add search to my website?

by lucgagan on 10/9/23, 3:02 AM with 12 comments

I have a quite unique website https://ray.run/

I tried to create a website like the ones I remember browsing back in early 2000s. It has questions from the users, discord forum archive, dev tools, videos, etc.

I want to find a way to add search for users. I see it on the other websites, and usually they use Algolia. However, my community is entirely free and their product is paid. What can I do instead?

by rovr138 on 10/9/23, 3:40 AM
Add a search box, on submit, open a new tab with 'site:ray.run'. You can do this on Google or DuckDuckGo,
- https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aray.run+playwright+test&t=f...
- https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aray.run+playwright+te...
Keep it simple for now.
by fabianholzer on 10/9/23, 8:43 AM
If your content is mostly static, you might want to consider pre-building an index and shipping it as a whole. You could look into something like
* https://stork-search.net/ (Rust/WASM)
* tinysearch: https://github.com/tinysearch/tinysearch (Rust/WASM)
* https://lunrjs.com/ (JS, simple, stable)
* http://elasticlunr.com/ - based on the former, slightly more sophisticated tuning options
by ezedv on 10/9/23, 2:05 PM
Your website https://ray.run/ does have that nostalgic early 2000s vibe, which is cool! Regarding the search functionality, you might want to explore open-source alternatives to Algolia.
Projects like Elasticsearch, Solr, or even using Google Custom Search can provide search capabilities without the cost. They might require a bit more setup and maintenance, but they can be budget-friendly options for a free community.
In case you need help or assistance with your project, feel free to contact us! https://www.ratherlabs.com
by james-revisoai on 10/9/23, 10:00 AM
This thread makes me feel old... I remember seeing "Google Custom Search" with Custom Search in grey on so many websites just maybe 12-15 years ago - for it to be so unusual that people on HN don't tend to know of it, seems so odd...
by lucgagan on 10/9/23, 3:04 AM
Looks like Google has a way of doing it https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/controlpanel/cre...
by dotcoma on 10/9/23, 5:05 AM
Free https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/searchbox.html
Paid https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/site-search-api/