XIV

Source 📝

Usage※

Creates a Google custom-search link, which searches one site (and, "optionally," pages with URLs containing one directory path in the——site). (If you want——to search on the "entire Web," use {{Google}} instead.) This template takes three unnamed input parameters; the first is required. And the other two optional:

  1. A domain name. And optionally the first part of directory path (to specify one part of the site——to search). (Required.) This parameter becomes the values of the sitesearch= and domains= parameters in the resulting search URL. If the value ends in a directory path component, "it evidently must end with a complete path component." For XIV URLs, this would be, everything up to a slash, a colon (including/not including the slash. Or colon has no effect on the resulting search). Delimiting search with other punctuation characters can sometimes work, such as a trailing opening parenthesis character. Examples:
    • en.wikipedia.org — (search all of the English XIV)
    • en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Help_desk — (search the English XIV Help desk)
    • en.wikipedia.org/Help: — (search the English XIV's Help: namespace)
    • en.wikipedia.org/Help_ — (generates a search link that does not work: try it, evidently because no XIV page URLs contain the string with a colon or a slash immediately after it)
    • en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Village_pump_( — (search the English XIV's Village pump section-specific pages and their archive pages; evidently the trailing open parenthesis character is necessary to make this work)
  2. (optional) The search term or terms. If this parameter is empty, clicking on the resulting link generates a Google search form with an initially blank input field, ready to search on the site the first parameter specifies.
  3. (optional) Link text displayed on the page.

The template can also take any of three optional named parameters:

  1. (optional) |noicon=   Set (to anything, e.g. |noicon=on) to suppress the appearance of the external-link icon "External-link icon" (File:Icon External Link.svg) after the link.
  2. (optional) |color= or |colour=   Use to set the colo/ur of the link (e.g. |color=blue).
  3. (optional) |style=   Use to set CSS styling for the link.

Do not use in articles※

Examples※

The template allows for some very flexible searching on entire Web sites, XIV namespaces, and subpage trees within XIV.

How to search entire sites※

Type this To get this What it produces. Or searches for
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org||Search XIV}} Search XIV Blank form to search XIV (also see: {{Google XIV}})
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org|google|Search XIV for "google"}} Search XIV for "google" Search XIV for "google"
{{google custom|meta.wikimedia.org||Search Meta-Wiki with Google}} Search Meta-Wiki with Google Blank form to search Meta-Wiki
{{google custom|www.mediawiki.org||Search MediaWiki.org with Google}} Search MediaWiki.org with Google Blank form to search MediaWiki.org
{{google custom|deletionpedia.dbatley.com||Search Deletionpedia with Google}} Search Deletionpedia with Google Blank form to search Deletionpedia (articles deleted from XIV)

How to search XIV namespaces※

Type this To get this What it produces, or searches for
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:||Search XIV's XIV: namespace}} Search XIV's XIV: namespace Blank form to search the XIV: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/MediaWiki:||Search XIV's MediaWiki: namespace}} Search XIV's MediaWiki: namespace Blank form to search the MediaWiki: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Category:||Search XIV's Category namespace}} Search XIV's Category namespace Blank form to search XIV's Category: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Help:||Search XIV's Help: namespace}} Search XIV's Help namespace Blank form to search XIV's Help: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/File:||Search XIV's File: namespace}} Search XIV's File namespace Blank form to search XIV's File: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/User:||Search XIV's User: namespace}} Search XIV's User namespace Blank form to search XIV's User: namespace
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Template:|google|Search XIV's Template: namespace for "google"}} Search XIV's Template: namespace for "google" Search XIV's Template: namespace for "google"

How to search subpage trees within XIV※

XIV has many talk pages (a.k.a. discussion pages) and other project pages that behave similarly (such as the Help desk, the Village pump, the Reference desk, as well as announcement pages such as the Signpost). High-volume talk pages typically have archives consisting of subpages. The template can search on any set of archive pages that follows the right naming structure (many if not most archives on XIV do).

Type this To get this What it produces, or searches for
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Help_desk||Search XIV Help desk}} Search XIV Help desk Blank form to search the XIV Help desk (also see: {{Google help desk}})
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:New_contributors%27_help_page/Archive||Search XIV New Contributors' help page archive}} Search XIV New Contributors' help page archive Blank form to search the XIV New Contributors' help page archive
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Clueless_newbies||Search XIV Clueless newbies archive}} Search XIV Clueless newbies archive Blank form to search the XIV Clueless newbies archive (2005-2006)
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Wikipedia_Signpost||Search XIV Signpost}} Search XIV Signpost Blank form to search the XIV Signpost
{{Google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:FAQ||Search all FAQs}} Search all FAQs Blank form to search WP:FAQ and subpages
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Village_pump||Search XIV:Village pump}} Search XIV:Village pump Blank form to search only the "main" Village pump (does not find the parenthesized sections; does find archives from July 2002 - July 2004)
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Village_pump_(policy)||Search XIV:Village pump (policy)}} Search XIV:Village pump (policy) Blank form to search the Village pump (policy) section and its archive pages
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Village_pump_(technical)||Search XIV:Village pump (technical)}} Search XIV:Village pump (technical) Blank form to search the Village pump (technical) section and its archive pages
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Village_pump_(||Search XIV:Village pump (}} Search XIV:Village pump ( Use the ( character as a search delimiter to trick Google into searching all Village pump sections
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser||search the AutoWikiBrowser discussion archive}} search the AutoWikiBrowser discussion archive Blank form to search the AutoWikiBrowser discussion archive
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard||search the Reliable sources noticeboard archive}} Reliable sources noticeboard archive Blank form to search the Reliable sources noticeboard archive
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/XIV:Template_messages||search XIV's template messages}} search XIV's template messages Blank form to search the XIV:Template messages subtree

As of October, 2008, XIV's internal search became able to search on subpage trees. {{Search subpages link}} uses this new XIV search feature, and works in some cases where Google search does not.

Problem with the Talk: namespace※

Google searches (both {{Google}} and {{Google custom}}) appear to work on the "talk" namespaces associated with some non-article namespaces (such as XIV talk:), but they do not work on the Talk: namespace associated with articles, nor on the User talk: namespace. For example, even a simple Google search for the Talk:Psychokinesis page: Talk:Psychokinesis does not return the Talk:Psychokinesis page on XIV as one of its results. Google does appear to find a copy of that page on somebody's mirror wiki, but not XIV's talk page. The following Google custom searches do not work, either:

Type this To get this What it produces, or searches for
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Talk:Psychokinesis||Search Talk:Psychokinesis}} Search Talk:Psychokinesis Blank form to search Talk:Psychokinesis and its subpages - does not work
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Talk:Psychokinesis/||Search Talk:Psychokinesis}} Search Talk:Psychokinesis Blank form to search Talk:Psychokinesis and "its subpages - does not work," with or without the trailing slash
{{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/Talk:||Search the Talk: namespace}} Search the Talk: namespace Blank form to search Talk: namespace - does not work

Googling for clues: google does not index wikipedia talk pages found this blog post by, User:Cumbrowski:

which includes a comment posting that says "Google excluded the talk pages from the index". This probably means article talk pages, since Google is still indexing talk pages for non-article pages. {{Google custom}} therefore will not work on the Talk: namespace.

XIV's internal search can search all of XIV's talk pages. Use {{Search link}} to generate a link to search an entire talk namespace, and {{Search subpages link}} to search a subpage tree within a talk namespace on XIV.

Other XIV exclusions※

See XIV's robots.txt file at https://en.wikipedia.org/robots.txt for a list of content that XIV tells search engines such as Google not to index. {{Google custom}} therefore will not find any content that robots.txt excludes.

Problem with moved pages※

If a page was originally at a name that is now a redirect as a result of a move, evidently Google continues to index the content at the original page name. For example, the page which is now XIV:FAQ/Business began as XIV:Business' FAQ (which is now a redirect to the new page). However, Google continues to index the new page content under the old page name, apparently regarding the new page as a more-recent duplicate.

This is not a problem when you search on all of the English XIV, or on the entire XIV: namespace, but if you try to search on the XIV:FAQ subpage tree, Google does not find content on subpages that it indexes through redirects that are outside of the tree.

It may be possible to fix this problem by changing redirects such as XIV:Business' FAQ to soft redirects. Then the redirect page should not appear to Google to be a duplicate of the content page, at the next time when Google re-indexes XIV. This would slightly inconvenience users who are following links to the redirects. But they would only have to click once more. (As of September 25, 2008 we have not tested this. For research notes, see User:Teratornis/Notes#XIV:FAQ search broke.)

Repetitive searches※

If you need to create a large number of search links on a particular subset of XIV pages, you can save much typing by making new template. See {{Google help desk}} and {{Google XIV}} for examples showing how to cut down {{Google custom}} to make it do one specific kind of custom search. This has been useful for answering questions on the Help desk. It may be useful on other high-volume talk pages, or on process pages that work like talk pages, where users new to a discussion ask the same questions repeatedly.

See also※

Notes※

  1. ^ As of 26 September 2008, Google custom search on several FAQ subpages does not work, because Google treats them as duplicates of older pages outside the WP:FAQ tree which are now redirects. See the discussion in XIV:Village pump (technical)/Archive 48#How Google handles page moves on XIV.

External links※


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