by Peter Cooper

Search engines have become commonplace on most commercial sites to help visitors navigate the Web as a whole or just the content available on the site itself. If you have more than a few pages of content on your site, you should implement a search engine to help your visitors get what they want as easily as possible. If people find what they're looking for, they're more likely to return to your site in the future. People can also feel more comfortable using a search engine than other navigational tools such as site maps.

The most common complaint with implementing a search engine into a site is that it's too hard. Usually you have to find a search engine CGI script or write one yourself. Then you have to install it, get it to monitor your site, and it all starts to become a major headache. No more. Atomz are one of the first companies to provide an external search engine service (one that runs on their own servers) for free. Their site can index your site by examining each page, requiring you only to put the HTML code that they supply into your site, and voila. You can now have a fully working search feature for your site in minutes.

But is this service as good as it sounds? What are the benefits and disadvantages of using this service? That's exactly what I intend to find out.

Signing Up and Installing

Signing up with Atomz is simple. Their Sign up Page asks for your e-mail address and Web site address and that's it! After confirming these details, an e-mail is sent immediately. If you're lucky you'll be able to collect and read it immediately too.

Once you receive the e-mail you are given your password and a unique URL to visit to confirm your Atomz membership. This is a painless process, and the Atomz site guides you through their terms and conditions, collects further contact details from you, as well as specific information about your site. Once you've provided these details, you're in! The Atomz site provides detailed instructions on how to do everything, but you're probably most interested in getting the search engine onto your site. If so, go to the 'HTML Page'.

Atomz spoils you for choice with two entirely different search forms to put into your site. You can have a standard search form which is a single text box and a search button. This is the most popular type of search that you'll see on sites. There's also an advanced search form which allows the user to specify the date, relevance, and type of terms they're looking for. This is a large form, so you probably won't want it on every page of your site, but could be useful in an area of your site specifically designated for searching the site. If you're handy with Notepad, or don't mind using the HTML windows in Dreamweaver or FrontPage, adding the HTML code to your site is easy. It's provided for you right on the page ready for you to cut and paste. Simple!

There's a lot of other features at your Atomz 'control center'. You can use the Reports tab to find out what people have been searching for, the Templates tab to personalize the search results pages, and make it truly look like your site. The Index tab allows you to force Atomz to revisit all of your pages and reindex them, while the Accounts tab lets you add more sites to your account, useful if you want to add search features to all of your sites.

Atomz explain everything in easy-to-read and easy-to-understand English. It's hard to get lost on their site, although there are a lot of different features to investigate. Once you've left the Atomz site, to log in again, you only have to go to http://www.atomz.com/members/ and log in using the form provided.

How It All Works

Now that you've added a search feature to your site, you need to test it. When you make your first search, you'll notice that the results pages have been branded by Atomz. This is part of Atomz's branding efforts and is used to help extend their online presence. If you really can't bear the thought of having someone else's graphic within your search engine, you can pay for an extended unbranded version of Atomz search (explained later).

Another useful feature of the Atomz system is that you can monitor what people are searching for on your site which can give you a useful insight into your visitors. As well as this, you can tell Atomz to index (or not index) specific types of files on your site, such as PDF, MP3 and Flash files. You can also control which pages are returned for specific searches too, so you can make sure your price list is always returned for search queries such as: 'prices', 'fees' and 'price list'. Most of these features are available under the Options tab in the control center.

Extra Features

Sadly, there are some limitations of the free Atomz search engine. The first is that you're limited to having 500 pages indexed on your site, and the second is the Atomz branding on your search results pages. It's unintrusive, but if the thought of this worries you, then Atomz provide an alternative solution. It's called "Prime Search" and there's no limitation on the number of pages that can be indexed, you can schedule the site to re-index your site whenever you wish, and you get complete control over the branding of the search results pages. On top of this, you also get ongoing free technical support. If you're a Web developer, you may also be interested in the Reseller Program that Atomz offer.

Even though there's no limitation on the number of pages which the Prime Search system can index, you're charged an increasing fee for more pages. Prices start from $75 per year for 250 pages, and increase to $1,200 per year for 5,000. Atomz will quote privately for any sites over this figure, although unless you're running an extremely large site, you shouldn't need to worry.

Conclusion

The service that Atomz offers is excellent. Not only is their Web site clean and easy to use, but their service is extremely reliable too. I've never seen an Atomz powered search engine go down or respond with errors. Atomz also offers an extremely wide range of features, and being able to see what your visitors are searching for is a real plus.

The free service does have some limitations of course, the most notable being that you have to display Atomz's branding in your search pages. However, you're receiving the service for free and Atomz have to increase their exposure to the world. Of course, if you find the search engine to be invaluable, you can pay to have the branding removed and retain more control. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this service to anyone who requires a search feature for their site.

Atomz Search

Speed: 4/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Features: 4/5
Overall: 4/5