Adding A Search Engine to Your Web Site

MSD Services utilizes the "ht://Dig" search engine. It is fast, easy to use, and mature software used on thousands of web sites around the world. Please read the following document carefully. It explains how the search engine works, how to activate it, and how to integrate it into your web site.

How It Works

All search engines work in the same way by building an "index" of specific words and phrases. Just like an index in a book, this one associates specific words and phrases with the pages in which they are found. When a visitor searches for some word or words, the search engine returns a list of pages containing these words. The engine also applies various mathematical formulas to determine whether one page can be considered "more relevant" than another and accordingly ranks the list of pages it returns.

When building an index of a web site, the search engine begins with the front page and systematically visits all pages linked to it. Then, repeating this action, it visits all pages linked to these, and so on. This process continues until all pages have been visited. As it visits each page, the search engine reads each word and builds an index of what word was found on which page.

The engine only indexes web pages, text files, and other "human readable" files. Images and other such files are ignored. But the engine does read Adobe PDF files and will return search results for these.

Hidden or otherwise "private" pages will not be indexed so long as they are not linked to any publicly available page. The engine also ignores links pointing to pages not on the site (e.g. a link to http://www.apple.com/).

Who indexes the web site and how often

Before anyone can search your web site it must be "indexed," and it must be re-indexed periodically as the site changes.

Your web site will be indexed initially when the service is activated, and will be re-indexed every Saturday morning. For sites requiring a different indexing schedule, please contact MSD Services to make arrangements.

This process is automatic and does not require any work on your part.

What is indexed

Normal web pages (HTML files), text files, and Adobe PDF files are indexed.
Images, movies, mp3 files, and other such files are ignored.
Also, any file or page not directly linked to your web site is neither seen nor indexed by the search engine.

How much does it cost

This service is included standard in the web hosting service. No additional cost is incurred for using it.

However, the disk space used for storing the index of your web site is counted against your storage quota. For most sites the size of the index should be nominally around a few megabytes and will not amount to any significant problem, but for larger sites the size of the index can be considerably larger. Basically, the larger the web site, the more storage is needed for its index. As always, if your site should exceed its quota, you will usually be contacted before service is affected or disrupted.

How to activate the service

Send an e-mail to hostmaster@msdservices.com requesting activation of the search engine. Please allow one business day for activation.

How to integrate into your web site

An example of how the search engine works can be seen at http://www.chinainformed.com/newsindex.html
When the search engine service is activated, a folder called "htdig" will be placed your web site's directory. Please do not delete, rename or otherwise move this folder, because it contains files needs for running the search engine on your web site.
Add links to your web site pointing to the search form:
```
<a href="http://[your-web-site]/htdig/search.html">Search</a>
```
The search form allows people to search your web site.
At this point, the search engine is fully functional and accessible. However, the search form probably does not match the look and feel of your web site. Modify it as you want, but do not change the
```
<form>
```
or
```
<input>
```
HTML tags.
Search results are displayed using the file "wrapper.html". This is a template used by the search engine. Again, you may modify this file to match the look and feel of your web site, but do not alter the
```
<form>
```
or
```
<input>
```
HTML tags. Note also the words beginning with the dollar sign ($). These denote special symbols, or place holders, which the search engine replaces with actual values when returning search results.

Help and Support

General questions and problem reports should be sent to hostmaster@msdservices.com.

Help with integration, beyond basic questions, is available at MSD Services' standard hourly rate.

Suggestions and Comments

As always, your suggestions and comments are welcome.