3 ms·
Ask HN: How important is it for a site to have its own custom search?
The link goes to a quick site a reddit user created to "solve" the persistent meme of "reddit search sucks". This brings up a larger question as to why so many companies seem to want to control search on their site with custom rolled search systems.
The question about this is, why doesn't reddit just do this? Why don't other sites do this?
It's free, the search quality is very good, and there is no cost for infrastructure, DBAs, developers, etc.
- tjpick 17y agoit is important for a site to provide users, who are already there, an easy way to search. It complements navigation. Doesn't really matter if it's custom or backed by something like google. Some random standalone search specifically built against another site is not that useful, but is a sign that the built in search is not as good as it should be.