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Tweaks to IndieSearch page, cos I was overly eager

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JP Hastings-Spital 2024-05-12 22:38:29 +01:00
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@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ I've been exploring what totally decentralised and local-first compatible search
Firstly, I should be clear that I designed this based on the premise that you want to search the sites you've _previously visited_. It's not intended to help with discovering new sites directly (but I do have some plans for how this might change in the future).
IndieSearch works as a browser extension (in my video I'm using [Arc](/posts/arc-new-browser/), a Chromium-based browser). That extension provides the search homepage, but its most important job is to check for a specific HTML `<link>` tag on the pages I visit & store what it finds. Specifically something like this:
IndieSearch works as a browser extension (in my video I'm using [Arc](/posts/arc-new-browser/), a Chromium-based browser). That extension provides the search homepage, but its most important job is to check for a specific HTML `<link>` tag on the pages I visit & store what it finds. It looks for something like this:
```html
<link rel="search" type="application/pagefind" href="/search" title="byJP">
@ -27,23 +27,23 @@ The `href` attribute is the location of the site's [Pagefind][pagefind] index, a
{{< figure src="config-popup.webp" alt="The IndieSearch config page, showing a newly visited site, three sites to be included in search results, and one excluded" height="600" >}}
Any time they visit the IndieSearch homepage (a page served from their browser extension, but linked to from _indiesearch.club_, for ease of access — though I've not built that yet!) they can now search all the sites they've visited and/or included (assuming they support IndieSearch).
Any time they visit the IndieSearch homepage (a page served from their browser extension) they can now search all the sites supporting IndieSearch they've visited and/or included. (I'd also like to build a website at [indiesearch.club](https://indiesearch.club) which bounces you straight to your extension's search homepage, for convenience).
{{< figure src="indiesearch.webp" alt="Using IndieSearch to query this blog; looking for 'Appreciate' and finding my recent post on Easy appreciation." >}}
## What's good
- The search is blazing fast as Pagefind method breaks up the index so clients only need to download tiny parts of the index, then the fragments of search hits. Usually this is ~30kB per search, per site.
- The search index is entirely static! No need for a special server; just some odd-looking files in a directory of your site.
- The search is blazing fast, as Pagefind's indexing method breaks up the search data so clients only need to download the relevant parts of the index, then the fragments of any search hits. Usually this is ~30kB per search, per site.
- The search index is entirely static! No need for a special server; just some odd-looking files in a directory of your site. (This is me just boasting Pagefind's best feature.)
- IndieSearch doesn't have many moving parts (awesome!), and its _very_ simple to [add Pagefind support to a site](https://pagefind.app/docs/), so adoption has fewer obstacles.
- [PageFindUI](https://pagefind.app/docs/ui-usage/)'s is powerful, pre-built, and have loads of great features that work out-of-the-box (like search facets).
- [PageFindUI](https://pagefind.app/docs/ui-usage/)'s is powerful, pre-built, and has loads of great features that work out-of-the-box (like search facets).
- Index configuration is almost entirely done by the indexer (ie. the site owner), with presentation configurable by the UI (within IndieSearch's code) — this is entirely down to [CloudCannon](https://cloudcannon.com/)'s awesome work with Pagefind — have a raved enough about it yet?
## What's difficult
- Scalability is rough; an extra 30kB per site, per search could make searching all your most frequented sites might end up being quite bulky. Each query Pagefind sends uses suitable cache headers though, so this could be limited, particularly for sites that change infrequently.
- IndieSearch requires that everyone uses the exact same search index structure & platform. CloudCannon have done something awesome here, but there's not much by way of standards or industry adoption behind the format they use — I'd like to see more permanence in the index format, and Pagefind's contributor base.
- I don't know how this could work on mobile, or on browsers that don't have extension capabilities in the same way.
- Scalability is rough; an extra 30kB per site, per search could make searching all your most frequented sites quite bulky. Having said this, Pagefind's queries send suitable cache headers, so this could be limited, particularly for sites that change infrequently.
- IndieSearch requires that everyone uses the exact same search index structure & platform (Pagefind). CloudCannon have done something awesome here, but there's not much by way of standards or broad industry adoption behind the format they use — I'd like to see more permanence in the index format, and Pagefind's contributor base.
- I don't have any good ideas for how IndieSearch could work on mobile, or on browsers that don't have extensions.
## What's next?
@ -51,11 +51,11 @@ Firstly, if you like where I'm going with this — give me a clap, for motivati
{{< claps >}}
I know I want to get IndieSearch into the various extension stores so it's easy to install, even in this prototype stage. (The [code is on Github](https://github.com/jphastings/indiesearch), by the way, if you're feeling brave and want to try it yourself.) This is also my first foray into building browser extensions, so I've a lot to learn (especially how to build them for Firefox, Safari, and Chromium all at once).
I know I want to get IndieSearch into the various extension stores so it's easy to install, even in this prototype stage. (The [code is on Github](https://github.com/jphastings/indiesearch), by the way, if you're feeling brave and want to try it yourself.) This is also my first foray into building browser extensions, so I've a lot to learn (especially on how to support Firefox, Safari, and Chromium all at once).
I'd also be interested in adding some IndieWeb-themed features, like being able to sync your indexed sites with a blogroll, or seeing if I can convince the Pagefind team to include [microformats](https://microformats.org) context to their indexer.
Oh! And if you use Pagefind on your site already, add my provisional `<link>` tag to your site & let me know! It'd be great to have some other test sites out there.
Oh! And if you use Pagefind on your site already, add that provisional `<link>` tag to your site & let me know! It'd be great to have some other test sites out there.
It's tangentially related, but I'm still desperate to see the [IPFS](/tags/ipfs) folks allow DNSLink records travel offline, and be associated with their SSL certs. The `TXT` record at `_dnslink.www.byjp.me` that allows IPFS enabled browsers to see `/ipns/www.byjp.me` and resolve whichever `/ipfs/Qm…` CID is the current version of my site _also_ contains references to my entire Pagefind search index. If you've pinned my site on IPFS you've _also_ cached a local copy of my search index. If pinning `/ipns/www.byjp.me` also pinned an assertion that "at {timestamp} the root CID of www.byjp.me was `Qm…` as signed by that domain's SSL certificate" then IndieSearch could provide full, local-first search of IndieWeb sites on a local machine, or local network, totally detached from the internet.