Search important on a blog?

[gaydemon]

Just wondering, do you guys think a search feature on blogs are important. Do people use it, does it make any difference?

I'm just having issues incorperating Movable Type search into a global search on gaydemon, ie they search all of gaydemon no matter what section with one search.

[gaydemon_jr]

I cant say I have used search on a blog.

Maybe just use tagclouds on the blog. Then users will see what IS on the page rather than needing to search.

[Bec]

I'd have a search feature that does indeed search your site. Often a surfer finds you based on a search engine return for a specific niche or model, production studio, dvd title, etc and once he has read that article may very well use the search feature on your site to see if you have other related material.

[Sultry_Selenia]

I've personally used the search function on blogs that I read regularly, although to be honest I check categories to see if they have a section catering to my interest first.

[Gaystoryman]

I'd have a search feature that does indeed search your site. Often a surfer finds you based on a search engine return for a specific niche or model, production studio, dvd title, etc and once he has read that article may very well use the search feature on your site to see if you have other related material.

Absolutely. Tags will indeed help, if you tagged the article or post the way a surfer might look, but in checking stats, I do notice a lot of people going to specific pages, from the search option.

Not sure about Moveable Type, but have you tried to add the 'google search' option to it? It has a feature so it'll default to search your site and give an option to search the web as well... which might not be ideal.

WP has several plug ins for improving the blog search, which is what I use.

[gaydemon]

Thanks I decided to sort it out. It woudl be a bit silly to remove search feature for only 1 section on gaydemon.

I sorted out the problem after spending 4 hours on trying to write htaccess solution.. which i did manage in the end.

Now its only time to get Tags sorted out on all blogs.. just never done tags on them before which means there are a lot of blogs to Tag up now!