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Please put a search box on your blog!

A little plea from me…PLEASE put a search box on your blog!
I love your blogs, and it is great to read the new posts that you put up daily, but sometimes you write really good posts that I want to read again a few months later. Sometimes it’s because I’ve just got hold of a book, and want to re-read your review, sometimes I remember that you’ve written a really good post on how to do something, whatever the reason there are occasions when I want to look at posts you’ve written a while ago.

The problem is that I don’t remember whether you wrote that amazing post in November or February, so digging through the archive section on your sidebar is annoying. Some people have great A-Z lists of the books they’ve reviewed (which everyone should have too!) but it isn’t always the books I’m after, so please, just for me….

ADD A SEARCH BOX TO YOUR BLOG!!!

Is there anything else you wish everyone would add to their blog?

34 replies on “Please put a search box on your blog!”

Whoops! I’m guilty of not having an alphabetical list of all my reviews, either by author or by the book title. It’s been on my list of things to do, alongside figuring out a rating system – either stars or ratings on 5, or ratings on 10, or something. I keep changing it depending on my mood while writing the review.

But, at least I have a search box!

I didnt’ realize this was an issue, but since you asked, I just did it! I’m not sure this was an available gadget on blogger until recently, or I probably would have done it sooner!

Claire – It isn’t so important when you are just starting out, it is only when you get quite a large number of posts that you need to worry about it. I hope you get used to your blog soon and look forward to seeing your list of books read and the search box at some point.

Laura – I didn’t realise that. Such a shame.

uncertainprinciples – Congratulations on having a search box!! I am trying to sort out my blog too. I have a long to do list, and keep messing with things. It always takes so long to sort these things out. I hope you figure out your rating system soon.

Sandy – Thank you! I don’t know if it is an issue or just me being fussy! It will be a real help to me in the future, as I often skip your reviews if I’m about to read the book, then take a while to find them again.

Diane – Sorry, I know nothing about blogger. I use wordpress. Try searching on google, and hopefully you’ll find out. Good luck!

Done! I think this is a new feature for Blogger… just go to your dashboard, click on layout, then click on add a gadget. Search box is second in the list that pops up.
Thanks for mentioning this Jackie!

YESSSS. This is so necessary. I’ve been surprised how many blogs I’ve visited, trying to search for something, and haven’t found it. Thank you for this plea, I second it!!

JoAnn – Thank you for adding it, and for explaining how to do it!

Lu – Our life should be a little bit easier now!

I always hope people have the “notify by email” option. I wish everyone had that. Otherwise, I don’t know when my comments have been answered.

I also like the archive of reviews by title in case I’m looking for a book.

I have a search box on my blog, but it only shows the first page of results. I can’t get it to show multiple pages (it teases you with telling you how many pages are there, but then if you click “page 2” it comes with an error page). So be very specific if you’re searching my blog. 🙂

Doesn’t Blogger have the search box in the upper left corner? No need to add it; if you’re blogging under the blogger platform, it’s always there by the blogger logo.

Just wanted to mention to Diane…it seems that in the section where you add gadgets for blogger, there is a new one right at the top of the list called “search box”. It is as easy as that! I was relieved, as I am not very good at these technical things!

Rebecca – You’re right, I do need a contact me form. My email address is buried away on my review policy page. I’ll try to add one soon.

Sandy – Thank you for letting everyone know!

Claire – That’s great!

Michele – Perhaps it depends on the template you use, or the version of blogger? There are a lot of blogger blogs out there without one, and I can’t imagine people removing it?

Jackie, I actually meant the “subscribe to comments” option under the submit button, which you do already have.

If you visit a blog in blogger, which means it’s address is something like http://blogname.blogspot.com, there is a blogger bar at the top of the webpage; that is where the “search blog” box is. Then there is a link to “flag blog”, “next blog”, “create blog”, and “sign in.” It’s not even a part of the template or the blog. It’s a part of blogger.

I can add, if you have a search box, test it. I had one and found out it wasn’t working correctly so I had to do it a different way.

My biggest wish list for all blogs is the ability to subscribe to a RSS feed for a particular posts comments. I don’t need a bunch of emails of follow up comments, what I look for is the ability to subscribe in my google reader to the individual post comments. I think this is an easy thing for blogger blogs, but not such an easy thing for wordpress blogs. WordPress tends to have the follow this posts comments by email or subscribe to all comments for all posts on this blog. I prefer the blogger feed for an individual posts comments.

Just my preference . . .

I have been wanting to add this but Blogger used to not have it. Thanks to your post, and to JoAnn’s comment, I realize Blogger just came out with the search feature, a new one on the template. Thanks!! And done. 😀 (PS. I would think the Authors tags might help in looking for titles too.)

I’m totally with you. Mine comes with a search box so thank God I don’t have to figure out all the Java script business! A search box makes blog surfing so much more convenient.

I wish people would make it easy to subscribe to follow up comments (you’ve got your nice little button below, but some blogs you have to subscribe to a comment feed and mess with getting ALL the comments and sometimes there is no subscription to follow up comments at all). Notice a few others have said the same thing–sorry for the repeat (I’m bad about reading the comments before mine).

I thought I had a search option on my blog, but apprently I don’t. I’ve added it now 🙂

I just google blog_name + search_string on google if I want to find anything on a particular blog, almost always works.

Actually, the box on blogger that Rebecca is talking about can be removed, and is often NOT included in free templates. Apparently, a lot of people find them ugly. I just updated my template this weekend and I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to add it BACK in. I love that, I have no idea how blogspot bloggers get to their dashboard without it!

Violet – That is a really helpful idea. I hadn’t thought of doing that!

Jeanne – I agree – sorry I wasn’t the one to let you know how to do it, but I know nothing about blogger!

Kim – I love it too! I make frequent second or third comments to people who have this option. It makes conversations so much easier.

Lisa – Thank you for reassuring me that I’m not going blind! I was sure I’d seen loads of blogger blogs without them.

Teddy – I didn’t realise my plea was so timely. I’m pleased you’ve added this now.

Some templates on Blogger do not use the Nav Bar at the top which is where you find the search engine. My template doesn’t cover up the Nav Bar, so I’m using the generic one. I often wonder if people even notice it up there!

Thank you! Altho, you have also just given me the gentle admonishment that I should have an A-Z listing, maybe. by title or author? or does the search box find it anyway? 🙂

Care, I’m pleased you found this useful.

I love A-Z listings. Listing by author is the most useful, but this is hard work. I’ve spent 2 months doing mine and still haven’t finished! Good luck!

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