Search Ideas - Block with Predefined Parameters

[gabs007]

Ok, I'd like to comment a few ideas about search. I don't know if this is where to post this, but I got an email asking to develop my answer in the survey a I filled in a few weeks ago. This is my contribution and my ideas about search and how they could be used. Not sure if someone suggested this before, sorry if I'm repeating.

 

I would like to have a block integrated the system. A block that is just a search tool, like the blocks about users, polls, feeds etc. 
I would like the results to be listed with a list directly on screen without leaving the page.
I would also like to have the results displayed by topic  title only, so users could see a compact list of them on screen without scrolling.

Something like this ...... in this search there are 2 results

( this is a screen from vbulletin search) Disregard the radio buttons for topics, users etc.. They are nice, but I'm not talking about those in this topic.

 

I would like to be able to have preconfigured searches in a block with the parameters I prefer  or that best help my community, so I can build my own SQL string using a simple menu with options.
The search block could go on the top or on the sidebar, but I think results should be displayed directly on the screen like modal windows.
The block would request for predefined search and could have just a title, a text box and a search button. 

I give you a few examples that anybody could set up in the block search:

Search the word ("written in the box") in the title only, search in theses forums and these clubs and topics must have the tag or the prefix: "I put my own tag".
Search the word ("written in the box") in tags only,  and in these forums only, 
Search the words ("written in the box") in topic content, "loose" search (any of them), and give me a list of only 20 results
Search the words ("written in the box") in topic content, "tight" search ( they way they are written) and display only topics from this forum.
Search the word ("written in the box") in gallery titles only, 
Search the word ("written in the box") in gallery tags.

 

If we could decide what exactly and how the block searches the content we could adapt it to our Communities very easily. We could add a search block for galleries in the gallery section, for example, which makes a lot of sense. Every community has different search needs and a quick search adapted to every community would be cool.
The whole point here is that everybody knows his community and know what they are looking for more often. Let's put parameters directly to the first block on the screen.  In galleries a search for galleries, in blogs a search for blogs, etc..

Imagine we have a Community with books, where The book Title is in the topic title, and the author goes in a tag. ( scenario or an example )
If we could place a block on the left sidebar with the title "Search by Title", we could set a block that ( for example ) searches the words only in the title of specific forums. Then we could set up a second search block with the title:  "Search by Author", and we would search the word in specific forums with the word in the tags. 

Also, this would allow theme creators to not have to worry about where to place the search , and we could also remove "search" from the top menus if necessary. 
 

Other optional ideas for the search block:

In the result list on the screen ( for example, ) we could add a link:  "for full search options - click here" So if the default search configured in the block doesn't cover what the user needs, then ... ok go to advanced search and "deal with all the options". Still, we can get rid of the search tool on the top, and the search menu if we want casue after the search, the user will have a click to go directly to the search page.

Optionally, like the picture I posted displays, we could add visual filters on the screen for the user, in case they want to search only in the forum, or only in the club. However, I think that's not the point of this suggestion; but I'm guessing some users could say, instead of the admin deciding where to search, let the users decide if they want to search in topics, galleries or clubs, for example. 

Optionally, if we limit the search to 20 results and there are more than 20 in the query, the system could add a final line saying "there are more than xx results, click here for the full list", and when clicking, user would go to the page with all the results.

Thanks for reading, if I didn't make myself very clear about something, just let me know.