Popular Searches algorithm

Drakla

Alrighty,

I want to do a popular searches feature on a database driven site I'm working on and have come up with the inklings of a solution which I keep thinking is rubbish. Basically I was thinking of having a search term database with a limited number of rows, say 1000, then each time a term was used (haven't thought about a filtering or ordering scheme) it would add to the count for that term, possibly pushing out the lowest rank or oldest term once the 1000 limit had been reached.

Does this sound like the right path to be going along, as I really think it seems naff, but can't think of any other way, and can't find any scripts or solutions that others have done.

Cheers all.

jamesm87

Originally posted by Drakla
Alrighty,

I want to do a popular searches feature on a database driven site I'm working on and have come up with the inklings of a solution which I keep thinking is rubbish. Basically I was thinking of having a search term database with a limited number of rows, say 1000, then each time a term was used (haven't thought about a filtering or ordering scheme) it would add to the count for that term, possibly pushing out the lowest rank or oldest term once the 1000 limit had been reached.

Does this sound like the right path to be going along, as I really think it seems naff, but can't think of any other way, and can't find any scripts or solutions that others have done.

Cheers all.

Hi,

The problem with this is that lets say your website is www.abcde.com

If someone seaches "a e" in your engine, the website will most probably come last, which means your going to delete it, however if someone seached "abcde" it will come prety much first. It would be a great idea if old links can disapear, why not do it on the life of the submission and its clicks?

Hope this helps,

James

Drakla

I've just looked at what I've written and I don't think I've said it very well.

The popular searches feature I want is to let people browsing the site see the top 25 things that people are searching for, what they're typing in - like "Cabbage Shops" or "Leisure Centres".

The 1000 row database idea I had was to allow terms to swap position, like a league table.