Add a Search Box

If you have a large site, you want to consider adding a search box to your site. There are a number of free ones available or if you are using paid hosting, there may be one available through the host. The free ones I have used are listed below. Each is customizable to reflect the "look" of your site.

FreeFind Here you sign up to "Add a search engine to your site." You will need to enter your page URL and your e-mail address.. Your password and setup instructions will be e-mailed to you. My Family Genealogy site uses FreeFind.
PicoSearch Here you sign up for your search engine. You will need to set up all the requested information. You'll then see the web page from which you manage and customize the Picosearch tool for your website. I have used this in the past.
Atomz Search is now a part of WestSide Story Search. Just fill in your email address and you will receive instructions via return email. The website for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harrisonburg Virginia uses Atomz as the search engine.
Google Free
FrontLook is not a free program but is available for both FrontPage and Expression Web. You cannot use this with any of the RootsWeb servers.

Once you decide which of the search engines you want to use and have the code to paste into your page, where should it go? I would place the code for your search box on every page of your site in a conspicuous place near the top.

Search box as part of the site masthead Family Genealogy Online OR Expression-Web-L Resources
Search box as part of a sidebar Genealogy Web Creations OR House of Oak & Sofas

You will probably find the search box will not validate without your "tweaking" the code. Each of the boxes below has been tweaked so the code will validate as xhtml. For html code, you will need to delete the closing /. xhtml codeing requires an element to be self-closing or opened and then closed.

Google Search Box

only search Genealogy Web Creations

<p class="center"><strong>Google Search Box</strong></p>
<div style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 4px; width: 20em; text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 0px auto">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td>
<input maxlength="255" name="q" size="25" type="text" value="" />
<input type="submit" value="Google Search" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="font-size: 75%">
<input checked="checked" name="sitesearch" type="checkbox" value="http://www.genealogy-web-creations.com" />
only search Genealogy Web Creations<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

Atomz Search Box

<p class="center"><strong>Atomz Search Box</strong></p>
<div style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 4px; width: 20em; text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 0px auto">
<form action="http://search.atomz.com/search/" method="get">
<input name="sp_a0" type="hidden" value="sp10038698" />
<input name="sp_advanced0" type="hidden" value="1" />Search:
<input name="sp_q0" size="10" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
</div>

FreeFind Search Box

<p class="center"><strong>FreeFind Search Box</strong></p>
<div style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 4px; width: 20em; text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 0px auto">
<form action="http://search.freefind.com/find.html" method="get" target="_self">
<input name="id" type="hidden" value="39665208" />
<input name="pageid" type="hidden" value="r" />
<input name="mode" type="hidden" value="all" />
<input name="n" type="hidden" value="0" />
<input name="query" size="15" type="text" />
<input type="submit" value=" Search " /> <br /><span class="smalltext">powered
by <a href="http://www.freefind.com">FreeFind</a></span></form>
</div>