Lijit

Tonight we released new and exciting configuration options for the Lijit Search Wijit and search result displays. With regard to the Wijit, you can now easily change its width, display your content icons and search cloud, and add an “Add to Google” button (more on that later) without having to reinstall. Here’s what the new Wijit (with all options turned on) looks like on my blog:

Visit the “My Search Wijit” page to start configuring your Wijit now! (Note: If you have the old style Wijit, using the configurator will replace it with the new style Wijit. Nothing bad or scary, just something to be aware of.)I mentioned above an “Add to Google” button that is now available as an option to add to your Lijit Search Wijit. Offering this button allows people to add your Lijit search to their Google Personalized Homepage with just a couple clicks. It’s a great way for you and your readers to keep favorite searches at your fingertips!Aside from configuring your Wijit on the “My Search Wijit” page, you can now also specify how you want your Lijit search results to display. They can either display on lijit.com as they do today, or you can select from two new options — “On my blog (basic)” and “On my blog (advanced)”. The “On my blog (basic)” option displays results in a small box superimposed upon your blog. Here’s what that looks like on my blog:

The “On my blog (advanced)” option allows you to display Lijit search results on a page within your blog. The great thing about both of these options is that neither takes readers away from your blog to display search results, which many of you have told us is very important. We hope you enjoy using these two new search result display options and welcome any feedback you’d care to share with us about them.

I wrote a blog post a little while ago entitled “Audi S4s are like crack”. When searching me through Lijit for that post, people sometimes just type in “crack”…which means that “crack” then shows up as one of my popular searches, and on my stats page, and (if someone just did it and you happen to be there to see it) on the Lijit homepage. Since I’m not really a big fan of crack (the drug) and haven’t amassed a lot of interesting, searchable content related to it, I sometimes find all of that a little misleading, as well as ever so slightly embarrassing.

Figuring that some of you may have experienced this same phenomenon, we added a feature that allows you to filter the searches displayed about you. Just look for the “Filter displayed searches” link on your profile page (under the “Searched About” cloud) or at the bottom of the “Top 25 Searches” list on your stats page.

Enter the terms you no longer want to display and — shazam! — they’ll display no more. If you change your mind and want to see those searches again, simply remove the term from your list and they’ll pop right back into view. Easy as that.

Now it’s even easier to modify your network! In last night’s update we added the ability to modify your network without leaving the blog you are on. If you are a Lijit user and you visit a blog that displays our search capability, now our Wijit adapts and lets you add the person to your network! If you’re on your own blog, you can immediately jump to your stats page, and if that person is already in your network, then it will tell you.

Sure it’s cool for your search to cover not only your own content, but also that of folks in your network. Damn cool in fact. Which makes it frustrating that it’s so difficult to set up your network.

We hear you, and we feel it too.

For now, you can add other folks to your network by one of two ways:

• If they are a Lijit user, simply go to their profile page and click the “trust” button. (It’s in the block with their picture.)
• If not, click the “Add RSS Informer” button up by the Lijit logo. Then enter the URL of their RSS feed.

We’re working on what is (IMHO) the most obvious solution for a blog: tying your network to your blogroll. After all, blogroll links represent the largest open social network around.

Today we added a Search Wijit customizer. If you’ve already have a Wijit installed, you can now match it to your blog. Just go to the Wijit pickup page. And if you don’t yet have a Wijit, well then sign up and get one!