In order to improve this blog I am constantly monitoring activity reports provided by Google Analytics. Few days ago I noticed that someone came to my blog by using the following keywords:
- add wikipedia searchbox webpart to sharepoint
- add google search bar to sharepoint
The query seemed interesting and here are some possible solutions:
Solution 1. - Federated Search
With Infrastructure Update Microsoft introduced a new feature for Search. Federated Search allows you to display results from any search engine that supports Open Search standard. Results are being displayed in the right column.
Microsoft offers a number of connectors for various search engines including Live.com, Wikipedia, MSDN and other. Unfortunately Google does not support Open Search.
Federated Search is also available for Microsoft Search Server 2008.
Solution 2. - Custom Search Web Parts
I created three simple web parts (nothing fancy, a bit of JavaScript and HTML) that allow you to easily initiate Search from a SharePoint page.
The following search engines are supported:
- Live.com
- Wikipedia
You can download these from my SkyDrive.
