New Search, Marquee, and Ads

[pjk]

There is now a new search for the site. Click on the search dropdown, and type in your query:

The results will appear within Speedsolving.com. Expect more results and more accurate results in the near future, as I will be optimizing the engine over the next couple weeks. The old search still exists and is unchanged, and is still an excellent search for finding other member's posts, searching for 'New Posts', etc. However, for general searching, the new Google Custom Search produces much more relevant results.

Secondly, you will now notice a small marquee on the homepage that shows current world records. This is basically just to show new people what has been accomplished over time in the sport of speedcubing.

Lastly, you will notice different advertisements being displayed around the site (unless you are a Premium Member). I will continue to test different positions and different types of ads in order to monetize the forum to eventually pay for itself. Some of the ads are paid, others are to simply spread the word (ex. the WCA banner, CubingUSA).

I'd like to thank everyone who has donated or contributed to Speedsolving.com. I hope it continues to provide a friendly means of connecting with other cubers from around the world. If you have any suggestions to improve the site, we'd love to hear it, please post in the Suggestions forum.

[byu]

Thanks for the new features!

And what about the homepage rearrangement?

[ThePizzaGuy92]

you have 3 unread messages, you better get at those.

[Ellis]

I don't have any ads, but please don't fix that. Also, what happened to the online users box?

[PatrickJameson]

Can the WR scroll go from right to left? Makes it easier to read IMO.

[byu]

Ellis- pjk told me over AIM that he got rid of the online users box on the homepage. You need to go to forum home to view it.

[Ellis]

Ellis- pjk told me over AIM that he got rid of the online users box on the homepage. You need to go to forum home to view it.

laaame, I liked that box... and I never go to the forum index.

[qqwref]

Can we *not* have the marquee? I don't need to constantly see information I already know - the WRs change much less rapidly than I go to the speedsolving home page (and also much less rapidly than I check speedcubing.com, so I know the current WRs anyway). The scrolling text is very distracting to me and even if I wanted to read it I don't have the patience to wait for it to go all the way by. As someone who's been around long enough to actually know where to find information, if I really needed the info, I'd just go to the WCA page.

Maybe you could (as a default) enable it for guests and disable for registered users, and allow us to change that in our profile.

[Jhong253]

I agree with Michael. I use dial up internet ( ) and the marquee significantly slows the loading of the page down. Apart from pictures and videos, everything else on the forum loaded relatively quickly. Now the homepage takes quite awhile to load...

[Odin]

Thats PJK! I love the new search!