Better Search Suggestion

[tally]

1) FullText Indexing

A great feature would be the ability to add a fulltext index to the title, description, keywords and/or url (as required by each site).

This would greatly enhance speed, and overall link capability. I run a directory with near 200,000 links - with a fulltext index, and it doesn't even scratch the surface of Mysql's full potential.

2) Integration with an Easy - Simple BB (not overkill)

I suggest this PunBB :

http://www.punbb.org/

It boasts alot of the features of the major players, but without all the admin hassle.

[esm]

I read a little bit about fulltext search at the mysql site.

Can it be added after the fact?

...can be created from CHAR, VARCHAR, or TEXT columns at CREATE TABLE time or added later with ALTER TABLE or CREATE INDEX. For large datasets, it will be much faster to load your data into a table that has no FULLTEXT index, then create the index with ALTER TABLE (or CREATE INDEX). Loading data into a table that already has a FULLTEXT index could be significantly slower.

[tally]

Originally posted by esm
I read a little bit about fulltext search at the mysql site.

Can it be added after the fact?

Yes. You can do a fulltext index after the data already exists in the tables.

By slower - they just mean the data insertion, (the process of creating the fulltext index) and that really doesn't matter unless a user intends on adding 1000 links a minute. It will speed up the overall search time, and the default Mysql fulltext search is quite accurate when you get more that a few thousand records.

An example of what not to do, would be to offer live indexing of URLs, descriptions etc to an already running, large, and busy fulltext index.

You would not want a fulltext index on less than a couple thousand records. The results are not consistent with the purpose. Hope it helps!