Workaround for navbar search bug

Navbar search problems have been around since 2009, as known issues blog tells. And still outstanding (as opposed to fixed). This was the first things I noticed when I switched from Wordpress.com to Blogger.

Known issues blog instructs us:

As a workaround, you can use search operators on Google.com to search for content specifically on your blog. For example:

site:yourblog.blogspot.com KEYWORD KEYWORD

OK, maybe good for blog writers, but what about our users... not very user friendly. My first solution to fix the navbar search was to automate that googling. Here's how it can be done.

Navbar search to Google search

Edit your template html. Insert this code either just before </head> or just before </body>.

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
  var blogUrl=window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + "/";
  var qPos = window.location.href.indexOf('/search?q='); // length 10
  if(window.location.href.indexOf('/search/label/') == -1 && qPos != -1) 
  {
    var urlGoogle = "http://www.google.com/search?q=" + window.location.href.substring(qPos+10) + "+site:" + encodeURIComponent(blogUrl);
    if(confirm("Navbar search is broken. Search with Google?"))
      window.location = urlGoogle;
  }
//]]>
</script>

If you put the code before </head>, the page below won't draw before user is asked to move to google search (the question pops up on white screen). If you put it before </body>, the page loads and then pops up the question, so user can see if the broken search actually found anything. You can test it in both places and choose which ever you like the most.

You can also customize the code to your liking, for example remove the confirm question, if you know how to. Know your way around.

This was my first solution to the broken navbar search, and it works nicely, and is very simple to install. I used this solution for a while, then came up with something completely different... I'll write about my second navbar workaround later on.

In the meanwhile, because search gadget is also broken, you might consider adding a custom Google search to your blog's sidebar: How to add Custom Google Search to your Blogspot blog.

3.10.2011 Navbar search works actually quite well in this blog (surprise, does not work for my other blog), but I installed this hack here for demonstration. I will remove it when I install the second generation navbar search hack and blog about it.
5.10.2011 This hack is removed, installed The ultimate hack for broken Blogger navbar search