Peter Seale's weblog

Sunday, September 09, 2007 11:05:23 PM UTC 

Introduction

Many months ago I listened to the DotNetRocks interview of Dan Appleman, wherein he discussed the concept of discoverability. I took two things away from that interview:

• The realization that we spend way too much time looking things up
• A useful tool in Dan Appleman's "Google Custom Search" engine: SearchDotNet.com

It's true, especially in the SharePoint world, that we spend way too much time looking things up. There's "big heap framework", but not "big heap documentation" to help understand it.

So as Dan Appleman has done for "vanilla" .NET content, I've done something to help us all find SharePoint content on the web.

Direct link to the page

In case you're already tired of reading, allow me to link to the page:

It's not nearly as awesome as you think

It's not as awesome as I would like, but it's a start, and it's already proved useful for me, today.

First Tool: Peter's SharePoint Search page

I've created an aggregated SharePoint search page containing search boxes for the three search engines I use regularly. This isn't incredibly awesome, but I figure a) the page loads in less than 1 second, which is faster than the corresponding pages on microsoft.com's site, and b) the search boxes are listed together on the same page, so you can quickly and conveniently search all three if necessary.

So why would I use anything besides Google web search?

While we all know and love Google's web search, I would love Google more if they did a better job indexing forums. At present, Google misses most of what goes on on the Technet SharePoint forums.

To get better access to Technet forum content than Google search provides, we can already use the search box provided on this page  on Microsoft's site. Up 'till now this is what I've been using, and it works moderately well.

To improve the search experience and also to spread awareness (everyone should be searching the SharePoint Technet forums), I've created a search box that queries Microsoft's SharePoint-specific Technet forums. I'm not making anything new; I'm just mimicking the search box you'll find on their page.

I've also included Microsoft's Newsgroups (Usenet) search for SharePoint. This searches all (and only!) the Microsoft SharePoint Usenet groups. While I haven't found the content on the newsgroups to be as bountiful a harvest as the Technet forums—hey, if you're desperate for information, you should be checking all available sources, right?

I haven't figured out how to search a limited subset of groups (i.e., all the SharePoint Usenet groups) with Google Groups, otherwise I'd be all over Google Groups search instead.

BOTTOM LINE: I've included two useful search boxes that index content not available to Google search. With these extra search engines, you'll find more stuff.

Second Tool: Custom Search Provider for the Technet Forums

I figure: I don't want to visit my SharePoint search page, and it's something I created by my own self! So I don't expect you, dear reader, to visit some total stranger's wacky search page every time you need to look for something.

To further improve the search experience, I made a custom search provider that works with Firefox and IE7, and resides in the top right corner of your browser window, waiting for your input. When you are struck by fancy, the specific kind of fancy that involves searching Microsoft Technet's SharePoint forums, the search box is there, waiting.

Custom Search provider - IE

Custom Search provider - Firefox

I haven't bothered to create a custom search provider for Newsgroups (Usenet) search—so if you're looking for it, it doesn't exist.

Why would I use the custom search provider?

The custom search provider makes searching Microsoft's Technet forums worlds easier, and is unobtrusive to boot. Let's walk through all the steps to run a search:

1. Press CTRL+K to set focus on the Custom Search box. [This shortcut works in both IE and Firefox] Or you can click with the mouse, you mental sluggard.
2. Type in your search query and press ENTER.
3. There is no step 3. I'm just including it because you're probably expecting more steps.

How do I install the custom search provider?

1. Visit the SharePoint search page—preferably in a new window, so you can read further instructions. :)
2. Click on the dropdown and select the "Add Microsoft Technet Forums" option (specific instructions will vary for IE).
3. There is no step 3. I'm just including it because you're probably expecting more steps.

Direct link to the page

Once again, allow me to link to the page: