Help - Search Results Tools

Adding Sites to the Search Results

Each search results page has an form which allows you to add a site to the results area. The form is on the right side of the page across from the top search result. Just type in the URL of the page you wish to add to the results and hit the "add" button. (If the URL is already in the results area, we'll zoom in on it for you.)

Once you hit "add", the search result will appear at the top of the page. The title of the page will be whatever the search is, and there will not be a description of the page added. Do not worry -- you can edit those later on.

Improve Existing Search Results

If you mouse over any search result listed on a results page, five links will appear: Edit, Annotate Spotlight, Delete, and Comment. Using any of these tools changes the search result, but only for the search at hand That is, if the URL were to appear on a different search, your changes would not also appear. Therefore, you may want to tailor your changes to the specific search query you are working on.

Edit

Clicking "Edit" will turn the search result into a pair input boxes: one for the title of the result and a second for its description. Whatever you enter into those respective boxes will become the title and description, respectively, for that search result within that search. If you put a term in double brackets (e.g. [[Jimmy Wales]]), the double-bracketed term will become a link to the search results page for that term. If you put a term in single brackets and precede it with a valid URL (e.g. [http://blog.jimmywales.com Jimmy Wales' blog]), the single-bracketed term will become a link to the URL provided.

Even if you are not in the Edit dialogue, you can link a term in a search result to that term's search results page by highlighting the term.

Annotate

Click the "Annotate" link and the Annotation Window will appear. This window is pretty powerful. Not only does it allow you to preview the site without leaving Wikia Search itself, but you can bring content from the site directly into the search result! Highlight any text and that passage will be brought into the search result. Click and image or a link, and we will automatically put that into the search results page. Best of all, if there's a way to search the site you are focused on, just click that search form, and we will bring the firm right into Wikia Search.

Spotlight

Sometimes, one search result warrants additional attention. It may not be the top result on the page, but rather a link that a fellow searcher using the same search may find interesting. In order to shine attention on that item, click "Spotlight". The result will be given a yellow background.

Delete

Irrelevant, spammy, or other incorrect results may appear when you run a search. Wikia Search empowers you to remove the bad results from the search. Click the "Delete" link and the title of entry will be grayed out and stricken, and the description hidden entirely. Do not worry if you make a mistake -- moving your mouse over the stricken item will yield an "Undelete" link.

Comment

Want to leave your thoughts on a search result? Click "Comment". You'll be provided with a one-line form via which you can opine. Type in your thoughts and click "post" -- or, if you change your mind and do not want to comment, click "hide".

Related Searches

At the top of every list of search results, in red, you'll see "Related Searches". Directly underneath you will find searches which are similar the one you entered. These results are signals to other users of Wikia Search, suggesting other searches which may help them find the web page(s) for which they are looking. Edited results appear with a green background; unedited results appear with a purple one. The higher the background extends, the more results there are in the index for that term.

You can add related searches to the menu by clicking "add more". Anything helpful is welcome -- you may want to suggest alternative spellings, search terms which remove ambiguity, or searches which could provide additional information to the user.

Star Ratings

A quick-and-easy way to leave feedback about the accuracy of a search result is via the star ratings area. Mouse over any search result and a small set of five stars will appear. Roll over the stars to rate the result. The more stars, the better! Results are instantly re-ordered based on your ratings.

Customizing the Results Header

For any search results page, the header -- the area with the Wikia Search logo and the search bar -- is customizable. Click anywhere in that area and you'll be able to add an image. You can either specify the URL or select a freely-licensed image from Flickr. (We pre-populated some results for you.) If you are skilled at CSS, you can click the "Advanced" tab for even more customization.

Results History

If a change has been made to the search result, that change will appear under the "Add to this result" area. The new area, called "Results History," show up to the last three actions by default. If three are more than three actions, you may click the "More" link. Do so, and you will be provided with three ways to sort the changes: by type (e.g. edit, spotlight); by user; and by site (i.e. domain).

Recent Changes

The Recent Changes tab shows all the alterations made on search results pages. You can sort by the type of change (e.g. spotlight, addition, deletion, etc.); by the user, and by the URL. It's a great way to keep track of all the improvements happening to the results all across Wikia Search.

Fun

See the "Fun"? tab. Click it and check out some of the neat tools with which we are playing around. We won't ruin the surprise by explaining them here, but don't worry -- they're very straight forward!