OrthodoxSearch

What is the purpose of this site?
What do the "refine results" links do?
Who is responsible for this site?
Can I use this from my toolbar?
Is my site listed?
Can I suggest additional sites?
How do you decide which sites to include?
Do you index non-English language sites?
Why do some results seem to be missing?
I would prefer that my site not be listed.
How can I contact you?
How did you do this?
Can I put an search box on my own site?
Do you have any link buttons?
What's with the ads?
Can I pick up OrthodoxSearch from any portal pages?
Where do your images come from?

What is the purpose of this site?

For specified searches, it can be more useful to search within a refined database.

What do the "refine results" links do?

These are descriptive tags added to different sites. They enable "faceted searching" by letting results be narrowed to a smaller group of pages. If you have a suggestion about how best to use these, go ahead and contact me. These are still very much a work in progress, which is one of the reasons this site is still considered "beta."

Who is responsible for this site?

Fr. John, an OCA priest.

Can I use this from my toolbar?

OrthodoxSearch is OpenSearch compatible, which means that if you're using IE7 or Firefox 2 to browse the web, you will see a little arrow light up in your browser's searchbar. From there, you can add OrthodoxSearch to your favorite list of search engines.

Is my site listed?

You can test to see whether your site is listed or not by adding "site:mysite.com" to an appropriate search word. If nothing comes up (and you know the word is relevant), your site probably has not yet been included.

Can I suggest additional sites?

Sure. Just send me an email listing one URL per line. If you want to be especially helpful, drop me a note and I'll likely enlist you to be a "traveling recruiter" - using a bookmarklet you can mark sites for inclusion on the fly as you browse.

How do you decide which sites to include?

OrthodoxSearch indexes sites broadly related to Orthodox Christianity. This includes the official websites of various jurisdictions, as well as parishes, weblogs, email lists, and other resource sites. We are happy to include Oriental Orthodox sites, as well as non-Orthodox sites that contain relevant material. We generally do not index the sites "independent" Orthodox groups not generally recognized by any of the Orthodox jurisdictions. As always, you should read with discernment and keep in mind that not everything you find on these websites will reflect Orthodox teaching.

Do you index non-English language sites?

Yes! Although OrthodoxSearch is strongest in English-language sites, we index sites around the world in a variety of languages. You can try searching for anything, in any language.

Why do some results seem to be missing?

Google's "Custom Search Engine" currently has a limit of 2000 files and 5000 items. "Supplemental results" (generally duplicates) may not be included in the search. They have received a lot of customer feedback about this, and we're hoping that they will expand these limits soon.

I would prefer that my site not be listed.

No problem. Just contact me and I'll remove your site from all search and/or blog listings.

How can I contact you?

You can reach me at .

How did you do this?

Not too hard really. I've been waiting for awhile, looking for a simple way to get this set up. It was only recently that Google became the first company (to my knowledge) to offer the public an easy way to search more than a few dozen websites.

Can I put a search box on my own site?

Yep, you sure can. Just copy and paste this code into your own webpage:  <form id="searchbox_001671935754606957777:hgnmjfaaxts" action="http://orthodoxsearch.net/results.html"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="001671935754606957777:hgnmjfaaxts" /> <input name="q" type="text" size="40" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9" /> </form> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=searchbox_001671935754606957777%3Ahgnmjfaaxts"></script>

If you just want a box to search Orthodox blogs, use this code instead:
 <form id="searchbox_001671935754606957777:47hmubxqygc" action="http://blogs.orthodoxsearch.org/results.html"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="001671935754606957777:47hmubxqygc" /> <input name="q" type="text" size="40" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9" /> </form> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=searchbox_001671935754606957777%3A47hmubxqygc"></script>

Do you have any link buttons?

I'm happy you want to spread the news! Here are a couple link buttons I made, with some easy cut-and-paste html code. Feel free to steal them or send in more.

#1: <a href="http://orthodoxsearch.org" alt="OrthodoxSearch"><img src="http://orthodoxsearch.org/osearchbutton.png" alt="OrthodoxSearch" /></a>
#2: <a href="http://orthodoxsearch.org" alt="OrthodoxSearch"><img src="http://orthodoxsearch.org/osearchbutton2.gif" alt="OrthodoxSearch" /></a>
#3: <a href="http://orthodoxsearch.org" alt="OrthodoxSearch"><img src="http://orthodoxsearch.org/osearchbutton3.gif" alt="OrthodoxSearch" /></a>

What's with the ads?

Since OrthodoxSearch is not a 501(c)3 organization under US law, Google automatically places ads on our search results pages. No endorsement is expressed or implied, but if you click on the ads I get a very small kickback, for which I am grateful.

Can I pick up OrthodoxSearch from any portal pages?

Right now, you can add OrthodoxSearch to your Google homepage:

Where do your images come from?

The icon of the Theotokos on the home page was painted by Fr. Andrew Tregubov (IconMotif.com), and is used with permission. The icon of Ss. Cosmos and Damien on the Commons page is of unknown origin. The icon of St. John of Damascus on the wiki page is from OCA.org and has been used with permission. The art on the blog search page and the cute magnifying glass were obtained from iStockPhotos.