Search Widget

A Search bar is a small rectangle box that you should add to your website that lets people search what they are looking for in your site. Users only have access to the links in front of them, so if you have a big website or a blog with many posts, a Search engine is extremely important so users can quickly find the content they want.

The Google Search Widget allows Adobe Muse Designers to place a search bar in any part of the site, whether in a sidebar, header or footer. The Muse Search Engine uses Google Custom Search to browse the content of your website.

Google Custom Search is powered by Google’s Search Algorithms which are the best and the fastest. You can customize the appearance of the bar with many styling options.

Few Recommendations: 

– Open search results in a blank page (default).
– Search engine will search only in your ‘Search domain’ results (Configure this in Widget Settings).
– Google Search may show ads sometimes over the search results.
– IMPORTANT: after UPDATE V2, you must create a free CX Code in Google Custom Search and enter it in widget settings (instructions below).

IMPORTANT: your site pages need to be indexed by Google to appear in your search box results. If your site is completely new, results will probably not show until some days after it has been published. You can speed up Google indexing your website by using Google Webmaster Tools.

WIDGET FEATURES

– Search for content in all your website pages.
– Keyword based search.
– Resizable widget. Place it wherever you want in your site (header, footer, sidebar…)
– Config button text, colors, content, radius & more.
– Config search box text, colors, content, radius & more.
– Config placeholder text.
– Select search target (blank or self).
– Config search domain.

UPDATE V2 (June 2017)

Using old Google Custom Search code you may receive an error 403 with the msg “The cref parameter is no longer supported”.
Google Custom Search announced that Linked CSE and Auto CSE will be turned off on May 10th, 2017.
This means you will need to enter an API key (Search Engine ID) to make your search engine work.

How to get your Google Custom Search Search Engine ID?

1) Get the API key (under Custom Search API) at https://console.developers.google.com/
2) Head to CSE home at https://www.google.com/cse/all
3) Click on Add which is below Edit Search Engine
4) You’ll get a search box. Type in your domain and then click on Create, which is at the bottom
5) You’ll get your CX code (called Search Engine ID) to use with your API key

HOW DOES IT WORK

1 – Add widget into Muse workspace.
2 – Resize it as you need.
3 – Set your search domain in widget settings.
4 – Customize widget as you want.

If you do not want to use Google Search, you may want to check this standalone search widget: Muse Real Search. It will enable Muse website search feature without any third party service.