January 2023 Newsletter
Search.gov results API
New search option
We know that many users of our search results API would like to offer a search experience similar to the Collections feature on our hosted results page. To support this, we have added a new search parameter to the API, “sitelimit,” which will allow you to focus the search results on specific folders. Please read the updated results API documentation for details on implementing the “sitelimit” parameter.
URL discovery
Web results indexed from RSS feeds
In addition to XML sitemaps, we now also support valid RSS 2.0 and Atom 2.0 feeds to discover URLs on your website. We check these every two hours for new or updated content, just as we do sitemaps.
You can list these feeds in your robots.txt file as sitemaps (see instructions on how to add feeds) and we will automatically begin indexing them. If you can’t add these to your robots.txt file, feel free to email us at search@gsa.gov and we’ll gladly assist.
Long-Awaited Improvements Update
We’re getting closer!
We have some exciting updates to share about our upcoming features!
Search Engine Results Page Redesign (USWDS Makeover)
We revisited our designs and refreshed them with user testing findings, as well as a component for the faceted search experience. We are currently exploring ways to support a React-based frontend in our current application. You can see the updated designs below!
For the header, we will support the Basic and Extended USWDS components with simplified header links, and for the footer we will support the Slim Footer and Identifier USWDS components.
Faceted Search
We now index the following metadata fields. Please consider adding them to your page templates to enhance discoverability:
- Audience (dcTermsAudience, meta audience)
- Tags (dc.subject, dcterms.subject, dcterms.keywords, meta keywords, article:tags, article:section)
- Content Type (dc.type, dcterms.type, og:type)
- Date (article:published_time, dc.date, article:published_time, dcterms.created, dc.date.created)
- Domain
- File Type
We also will support three custom, Search.gov specific metadata fields to provide more flexibility Feel free to contact us at search@gsa.gov if you’d like to add these fields.
We are now working on searching and filtering using this new content. The functionality will be available in our Results API first. It will be added to our hosted search engine results page after the full USWDS redesign is rolled out. At that time you will be able to configure the filters for leveraging the metadata fields mentioned earlier.
Read the metadata documentation
Javascript Indexing
We are now able to index Javascript-based pages! Domains will need to be opted-in to this new functionality, so please reach out to our team to search@gsa.gov if you’d like us to start indexing your content with rendered Javascript.
Release Notes
Want to learn about the latest features, fixes, and focuses of the Search team? We post monthly Release Notes on our website.