[Sigia-l] Default Searches

[Avi Rappoport]

At 11:01 AM -0700 10/17/02, Tony Stephens wrote:
>We have a large number of users that seem to be submitting our 
>search box/form without entering in anything to search for.
>
>I thought that the simple solution was to do a basic check on the 
>form field, and if it's blank, focus them back onto the form field.
>
>However, would it be a more helpful solution to submit the form, 
>using our top search phrase?  We'd be suggesting the search for them 
>essentially at that point.  Is that too intrusive?
>
>Thanks.
>Tony


I've seen several approaches:

* JavaScript alert that tells them to type something
* Bringing up a simple search page with helpful instructions
* Bringing up a no-matches pages customized for blank queries
       this can include a list of the most frequent searches
* Bringing up a no-matches page with nothing special (not recommended)
* Showing everything in the index in no particular order (really not 
recommended).

I don't think performing an actual search is a good idea -- it would 
probably confuse your users more than helping them.

Avi


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