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SQL Hunter
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Written by Datagod
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Sunday, 28 October 2007 |
 While researching an article I am writing for SQL Server Magazine, I found myself looking up URL's for SQL Server Books Online. Instead of re-hashing the BOL article, I merely refer the reader to a particular topic that Microsoft has covered in great detail.
Since I was using the SQL Hunter to find the references, I thought it might benefit people to add another "refinement". Now when you get your search results, you can press "Books Online" to view a whole slew of articles from Microsoft's online resource. |
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Written by Datagod
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Sunday, 14 October 2007 |
I tweaked the code behind the SQL Hunter today to force the cursor to appear in the "traditional search results" box. This way, when you open the SQL Hunter, you can immediately start typing your search request. No need to grab the mouse and click on the box.
I also modified the embedded SQL Hunter search box at the top right hand of each page on Cooking With SQL.
Here is summary of the changes to the code:
Step 1 - Assign a name to the CSE form in your code:
<form method="get" name=”SQLHUNTER” action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="google_window">
Step 2 - Add an "onLoad" event to the BODY tag on the page where your CSE resides:
<body onLoad="self.focus();document.SQLHUNTER.q.focus()"> I am very pleased with the results!  |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 14 October 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Saturday, 07 April 2007 |
 I added a second search box to the SQL Hunter main page. This additional search box will take the users away from the main page and display search results on another page in a more traditional, non-ajax style.The second search box is definitely tied into my Adsense account, which means that queries are tracked and ad revenue generated. So, for those who like the tab layout we have the AJAX enabled searches. For those who may not be running javascript we have the old style. No matter which type of searches are performed, the same custom search engine delivers the SQL tailored results. Refinements and "more results" are also available. The differences are purely cosmetic. But isn't cosmetics what makes the web so successful with the masses anyway?  |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 07 April 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
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 I have struggled on and off for the past month or so, trying to figure out why my custom search engine does not properly track searches from the SQL Hunter main page. It is supposed to be connected to my Adsense account, which will track the number of queries per day, along with the number of embedded advertisements shown to the users as well as the number of ad-clicks.
The current SQL Hunter main page is built with Google's AJAX API which is quite impressive to say the least. AJAX is beyond my current understanding of web-style programming languages, however I am able to hack my way through examples and can pretty much get things working. What I could not understand until today is why the Adsense portion is not behaving properly. I posted calls for help in the various Google support groups (Custom Search Engine, AJAX, Adsense, etc.) but I have had no success, until earlier today. A friendly chap in the Google Custom Search Newsgroup named Woody helped me quite a bit and got me on the right track.  Today I stumbled across the Google AJAX Search API BLog which states that the AJAX API is in beta, and as such the advertisers are not charged for inclusion in the results. Consequently, my adsense account is not connected to the search results and that explains why I am not seeing the query statistics that I was expecting.
Had I only known this a month ago, I probably would have not chosen to use the AJAX example, and instead used a more traditional example which is not a slick, but certainly delivers the search results to the users and the query statistics to the data junkies like me. At least now I know that I did not break anything in my hacked out AJAX code. Like many Google products that I have come to rely on daily it is still in beta.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 April 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Thursday, 15 March 2007 |
My good friend Nicholas created a few more images for the SQL Hunter. I added a PHP based image randomizer to mix up the pictures a bit. Go there and hit refresh a couple of times and you will see his handiwork.  |
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Written by Datagod
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Sunday, 18 February 2007 |
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Google gave me 30 dollars today to spend towards Adwords. I also had a coupon from my webhosting company which brought my grand total to about $70. Google charges a $10 fee to create the adwords account, so I am left with about $60 worth of free advertising. I setup a campaign to advertise the SQL Hunter . In one day, 15,000 ads were shown, 4 people clicked, I was charged 62 cents (not .62 cents, as some phone support noobs would claim). It was an interesting experiment. I guess for $60 googlebucks I can get about 300 visitors to SQL Hunter. Seems rather expensive to me. But then again I am not selling anything on the website...just trying to have some fun. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 February 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Sunday, 18 February 2007 |
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Using the Google Marker, I added about 20 more SQL sites to the SQL Hunter. I now have 39 sites. There are tons more to go, but time is a short commodity lately. |
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Written by Datagod
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Thursday, 15 February 2007 |
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 Today I used SQLHunter to track down some sql information for work purposes. I was surprised at how useful I found it. I was also suprised at how annoying it is to have it "pre-load" query results. For one, you have to wait for the initial query to execute in order to see the whole page. For another, when you follow a link and then hit the "back" button, the default query re-executes, and you lose your last result set.
Very annoying. It is fixed now. No more pre-load. Just SQL fun fun fun!
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 February 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Wednesday, 14 February 2007 |
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I just submitted a link to Digg! I hope the people there find SQL Hunter useful. I also hope the site gets absolutely hammered. I really want to see if my hoster keeps their promise of 1.5 TB bandwidth per month. Now to figure out how to add the "Digg This" icon to the webpage. Update: Only 3 Diggs. Rats. I guess I am just not popular enough. I also added a link at LinkFilter.Net which brought in close to 66 viewers. Not too shabby!
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 February 2007 )
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Written by Datagod
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Sunday, 11 February 2007 |
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I fined tuned the SQL hunter today, adding about 15 URLs to the repertoire. I also was able to add an input parameter which allows you to call the page with an initial search query. |
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Written by Datagod
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Saturday, 10 February 2007 |
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A few days ago I created the SQL Search Engine, which is built using Google Co-op. Creating custom search engines is fairly straightforward, and the results are surprisingly cool. I actually jumped for joy when I got it working, I kid you not.  The purpose of the SQL Search Engine is to help techies like myself get answers to their SQL specific questions without having to do a whole lot of filtering themselves using Google's advanced search features. I have plugged in various SQL related websites, forums, newsgroups, etc. Refinements will allow users to drill down to a specific subset of data pertaining for example to SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc. 
Today I fooled around with Google's Ajax API, and got the SQL Hunter up and running. I purchased the domain as a birthday present for myself (oh how nerdy of me!) and I have a page showing search results from the SQL Search Engine. Try it out, it is pretty slick.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 March 2007 )
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