a friend of mine is a programmer for a military hospital and has hit a wall in the design of a new website. he is after a tutorial that explains how to build a search engine that searches the entire site. it cannot include 3rd party software so calling up google is out of the question. any ideas of outlets I should send him to for support?

7/13/2007 5:46:20 PM

You don't build a search engine.

What platform is he using? There are several engines out there that can be purchased and will work fine for a single site search.

If he is using PHP, there are about a half dozen open source engines he can use. I used a bsearch based project years ago and had a working engine setup in a night.

7/13/2007 8:37:15 PM

Quote :

"it cannot include 3rd party software"

two words: open source. your friend is a programmer? what kind of programmer doesnt know this?

and, no, you dont "build" a search engine from scratch.. thats like telling an auto mechanic to "build" a transmission from raw parts.

7/13/2007 10:09:20 PM

naw man, its like telling a mechanic to build a car and handing him one big block of steel and one big block of aluminum and a bag of plastic pellets. And a hammer and chisel

7/13/2007 11:52:23 PM

^and mysql

7/13/2007 11:54:50 PM

fuck I knew I forgot something

7/13/2007 11:56:42 PM

amazingly hilarious commentary at my choice of words aside, no links, suggestions, anything? I dont know what he knows or not. We just started talking about a website he was building and the problem he came to. I told him there are some pretty intelligent guys on TWW who may be able to help.

7/15/2007 11:42:13 AM

those guys probably at least need some framework to make a useful suggestion.

7/15/2007 11:43:51 AM

^^you have yet to give us any pertinent information to be able to do anything with.

Until you can tell us the environment, languages, constraints, timelines, budget, or SOMETHING other than "OMG MY BUDDY NEEDS HELP!!", this is a waste of a thread.

Best suggestion I can give you now is http://www.google.com

[Edited on July 15, 2007 at 11:54 AM. Reason : .]

7/15/2007 11:53:32 AM

^what he said.

7/15/2007 1:20:37 PM