If you're a regular reader of this blog, first and foremost I'd like to thank you! Second, you've probably noticed that the search feature on this and most Blogger blogs well...for lack of a better word...sucks. Even when I try to use it (to find past posts I've written), nine times out of ten, NO results come up, even when I know I've written posts about certain products. This drives me insane, because if I can't find what I'm looking for, it means you can't find what you're looking for.
So over the past year, I've tried a handful of different search applications, including Google's, and others. Google's is pretty good, WHEN it works. Most the time it just ends up freezing up on my blog and who wants to wait more than a second or two for search results? I sure I don't.
So after much trial and error, I've decided to give Lijit a try. This is an extremely powerful search application and it's got a lot of bells and whistles (most of which I'm still trying to figure out). I just installed it today (see right-hand sidebar) and here's the favor I'm asking of you:
Give it a whirl, would ya? Type in some key words that you KNOW are on this blog, somewhere, and see what pops up? Again, I'm asking this of regular and longtime readers because you're familiar with the content here. If you type in "Revlon" and my Just Bitten lipstain reviews don't pop up, you might notice that, whereas new readers wouldn't (although if you're a new reader, I'd appreciate your feedback as to how you like using Lijit!).
So that's it. I know it's a pain, but I REALLY appreciate if you could just do few searches and let me know how you feel about this new application. I'm not 100% sold on it, but so far it seems more thorough than any other search applications I've used in the past.
And a HUGE thanks in advance for your time! I'm always striving to make this blog better, but it means nothing if YOU'RE not happy, so I really appreciate your help and feedback!
I hardly use the "search" bar in blogs. I usually click labels to direct me to where I want to go.
ReplyDeleteI tried searching "dry shampoo" on the Lijit search and it seems fine. I got a whole bunch of your older posts and reviews on dry shampoos instead of a blank page or posts totally unrelated to dry shampoo!
Hi G! I just tried it and it does seem to bring up several of your posts - I did "Bieber" (whyyyyy was that the first thing that popped into my head?! Ugh! LOL), "Pixie," and "Hard Candy." The only thing I noticed was that it doesn't seem to sort the results by date, which would be helpful. The first result was from Sept '09, second, third, and fourth were from Oct and Nov '10, and then back to '09 again. Maybe there are sorting options that I'm missing? Other than the wonky date arrangement, I like it!
ReplyDeleteHi G...I used your new search application & it brought up several posts. No duds like somex w/ Google. HTH. :O)
ReplyDeleteI don't use the search function in blogs, very often. In fact, almost never. But this one seems to work just fine. It is fast and seems pretty thorough.
ReplyDeleteI would use it, again if I felt the need to do a search on your blog. :)
I really like this search engine! I looked up Batiste Dry Shampoo, Nailene, Tone body wash, and Black Radiance primers and everything popped up instantly. Works well!
ReplyDeleteWithout looking at what others had searched, I too, did dry shampoo, Iman, LA Splash too. And I got several of your posts that came up. Worked just fine for me.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. Let me just post my novel here haha. I did some pretty extensive testing.
ReplyDeleteI searched the Following:
Mad Men:
I got several results, The first being your announcement of the Mad Men polishes, the second being the actual product information of them and so forth.
Olay:
A post about Olay Advanced Healing lotion, A post MENTIONING (I rather like this, elaboration later) Olay (Specifically Olay and Cover Girl's Simply Ageless concealer.
China Glaze:
In order:
Re-release of Wizard of Oz, The CG OMG giveaway, Holiday 2010 Promotions
Foundation:
PF Healthy wear Review, L'Oreal's Roller Foundation, Revlon Color Stay Mousse
After using this to do the searches above I've come to a few conclusions:
*Things I like:
-I like that it pulls up posts that even mention the word, this can be a good thing. For example, say I didn't remember that CG and Olay made that concealer, and I was trying to find it, I just type Olay and it brings that up. My bad point will be illustrated below.
-I like that the date is the first thing aside from the title, making it easy to visually organize the posts to find which one I like best.
-It is a pop-up that doesn't make a new window, or direct me to another page. This is great because I can just right click Open in New tab (Or press both the left and right mouse buttons to open it in a new tab in the background! Works on touchpads and mice alike!) and exit out of the pop up when I'm done and be on the same page.
*Things I don't like:
-The results are not listed in chronological order. So I will type in Mad Men and I get the July 2010 post with the next one being Oct 2010 and the one after that would be form '09
-Word mentioning, this is bad because When I searched Mad Men, I got a lot of posts where you mentioned your love for it. And while yes, it's awesome you love the show (<3) If someone can't find the post they are looking for, this leads to frustration. Granted, these are minute things but who knows?
*Overall:
I really like this system, it's fast, that popup thing is HUGE for me. I hate having to navigate back to a page where I searched. The things I don't like are kinda small, but I can see how some people would have a problem with them. The date thing bothers me the most but I could live without it.
I rarely use the search feature, but I did try it out and it seems fine! I typed in "Sally" and got four pages of results (I know you review Sally Hansen as well as Sally Beauty Supply stuff). So, it works, yay!
ReplyDeleteI just want to say I think it's awesome that you do so much to make your readers happy. Honestly, that's a HUGE reason why Nouveau Cheap is one of my favorites!
it worked pretty well. the only thing is that the dates are sorted by the oldest first. but as long as you know that, its no problem.
ReplyDeletei searched "nutty" and it gave me some results of the e/s so i like it!
ReplyDeletehope that helped!
I found one glitch. I searched Borghese, and it did come up with 4 pages of hits, but the syrup nails post was missing. I tried it again, and it was still missing the second time. Then I searched syrup, it was still missing. Kinda weird since Borghese and syrup are words in the title, not just mentions in the post. It should find those!
ReplyDeleteI like it, and it seems to work fine, of course I can't tell you for sure cause I don't know personally whether it is bringing up everything that it should.
ReplyDeleteI notice people use the search option on my blog often and it's totally tragic when it doesn't work right, so I can understand your frustration.
It worked fine for me!
ReplyDeleteTried several searches, some general, some specific, and it's working great!
I searched "dry shampoo" and "night elf" and the results for both came out great. It found all the right reviews!
ReplyDeleteI like how this works well! Totally awesome! :)
ReplyDeleteI searches Sally, Color Icon, and Baked, all of the results were what I expected :)
ReplyDeletePretty good results. I have the same complaint as others about chronological order. And I wish it would only show posts by the label instead of picking up any word that is in the post. But overall, an improvement!
ReplyDeleteWorks well it seems! I tried Wet N Wild Holiday and the holiday palettes info came up :)
ReplyDeleteLijit is working fine. I do have to agree with one of your other readers that the dates are not in order but that's because search engines usually put the most popular posts up at top.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing is-- you're all over Google! :)
The search bar works fine, i searched for softlips and wet n wild and the posts popped up. However, like the other readers i hardly ever use the search bar on blog sites. i would actually search on the google home page and your articles pop up.
ReplyDeleteThis search engine seems to work great I got the result I was looking for at the top of the list. Hoping it works for everyone else! :D
ReplyDeleteWOW, you guys, thank you SOOO much for taking the time to test this out, and for all the amazing feedback! I LOVE you all for doing this--you can't imagine how much it helps me out.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the number one complaint so far is that it doesn't list search results in chronological order, rather it lists the results by popularity. That sucks, but I'm not sure if I can change it (I'll try!).
Second, Donna, you are absolutely right--I tried searching "Borghese" and my syrup mani didn't show up. Argh! I then searched "syrup" and it didn't come up either. My biggest issue is what DID come up when I put in "syrup" though. It looks like it's pulling the stuff from my blogroll, which is not my actual content. I'm going to try and fix that.
The good news (sort of) is it DID pull up that post when I searched "Borghese syrup" but that's not helpful if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. :(
Well, I guess for now I'm going to stick with Lijit because it seems to be better than anything else I've tried over the past year. Granted, it's not perfect, but it's the best so far. Hopefully I'll be able to fix those little bugs. Thank you guys again--I really, REALLY appreciate all the feedback.
PS: And M, that was such an incredibly sweet thing to say--thank you! xo
The only thing is that the most recent posts don't come up first. But that's how google search is too when I've used it to search on blogs. But besides that I really like it
ReplyDeleteIt worked really well (and fairly quickly) for me. I checked "Sally Hansen", "Hard Candy", and "Softlips", and they all brought up the posts I was expecting & remembered. It worked fairly quickly, too.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree w/you about Google's search bar on Blogger. It sucks!
Hey! Love your blog and just wanted to tell you that the Lijit search bar honestly isn't all that great...it kind of froze up and wouldn't let me press "Back" on the blog to get to your page, and I had to exit out. I searched for "Sally Hansen" and anything you wrote about came up in Google-style search results. Thank you so much for caring, but the Search feature isn't that necessary in my opinion. But I know how it is to want to successfully do something I set out to do efficiently and ideally, so good luck on your quest for the perfect blog search engine! :]
ReplyDeleteFaithfully yours,
GlamourJunkie
I disagree with GlamourJunkie. I think the search feature is really important. Many times I remember a post on a blog I want to go back and check out. The other day I was searching for your posts on your patchwork mani and I couldn't find them. But I tried with Lijit and it found them! I agree with the others, not being able to sort by date is a little frustrating but this is the best search feature so far.
ReplyDelete