SearchFox Beta - Official Release

[ekozak]

Hi all,

I am the Product Manager for SearchFox (http://www.searchfox.com/). I want to introduce our new beta release and would like to receive feedback from the Search Engine Watch community.

SearchFox is a search platform. It allows you to create bookmarks using your own words, and search your bookmarks, your friend's bookmarks, the SearchFox community bookmarks and the web from one search box. We call it "search platform" because it redirects you to Google if it doesn't have something better to show you.


SearchFox also includes the following cool features:

- Real-time Search: dynamically constructs search results as you type

- Keyword Suggest: displays keywords used by other members of the community when you add a bookmark to prevent folksonomies from breaking

- Groups: share bookmarks of everything your friends, colleagues and groups want to organize online

- Publish: transform a Blogger weblog into a collaborative portal.

Thank you.

[randfish]

I would very much like to be able to use the service without creating an account first. I think you'll find you have many more users if you only force registration when it is absolutely neccessary to the task.

Looking forward to trying it again soon - sounds like a very interesting project.

[I, Brian]

Having to register to use it is a great way to turn people away.

You need to give us a reason to sign up first.

[ekozak]

I would very much like to be able to use the service without creating an account first. I think you'll find you have many more users if you only force registration when it is absolutely neccessary to the task.

Looking forward to trying it again soon - sounds like a very interesting project.

We are forcing registration for the following two reasons. First, as a beta release, we need to make sure our server will be able to handle the requests. Secondly, registration is absolutely neccessary to get the full value from SearchFox.

In addition, the sign up process is very simple (4 fields) and you have to do it once. After that, you click "remember me" and you won't have to log in again.

BTW, we'll be opening general search to everyone in the near future...

Thank you for the comment...

[ekozak]

Having to register to use it is a great way to turn people away.

You need to give us a reason to sign up first.
I understand your concern. Registrations are always a pain.

The value proposition is simple:

- SearchFox as a search platform: SearchFox allows you to search not only the web, but the content that you and your groups most care about. General search engines are flat and provide wide range of results. Search Fox is deep and provides specific results*.

(* note: once you develop a rich index or join already established groups)

- An IE "toolbar" and Firefox "browser buttons" for the smoother bookmarking workflow out there.

- Unique features in this space: Real-Time Search, Keyword Suggest, Groups and Publish

If any of things I mentioned above get you excited, give us a try. We are looking for sincere feedback...

[hiero]

Forcing me to register made me go away. I understand why you're doing it, but I would rather have a choice rather than being forced. My2cents

[ekozak]

Thanks to all your feedback, we decided to create an account for visitors. You'll be able to do simple searches, real-time searches and use the advanced syntax qualifiers.

It is still rough around the edges when you try to do something that the "visitor" account is not authorized to do (e.g. add bookmarks, create groups, etc.).

Username: visitor
Password: myguest

I am looking forward to hear your feedback.