New Search has launched!

[TomFulp]

We just launched our new search! Some notes:

1) We have set up a dedicated Elasticsearch cluster, which is awesome. It's also highly customizable, so if you don't think you're getting the results you should be getting, let us know what search term you used and what you expected to find; it might help us make adjustments.

2) The new search has auto-complete and auto-suggest, so you can see suggestions as you type! We can manually designate priority suggestions, so feedback there is helpful to.

3) Each category has unique Advanced search options you can explore. For example if you are searching Audio specifically, advanced options include licensing settings and song length.

4) Advanced options also let you search for exact phrase matches, title only matches, etc. if you find the results to be too broad.

5) You can now search through blogs, many of which weren't even accessible to Google search in the past! This was due to an onslaught of spam blog posts between 2011-2013 that were damaging our Google rank. I am STILL working to clean out the spam from this period, there were sweatshops literally working around the clock to spam NG and we have to pay a bunch of money for services that help mitigate that now.

The new search also works well on mobile, go have a look. We've solved a few iOS bugs in the process; your browser will no longer zoom in when you tap the search bar and our header will no longer be way oversized if you tilt your phone into landscape mode.

Upcoming update: On mobile, clicking the magnifying glass will open the search field on top of the header instead of under it. This will create additional room for the auto-complete / suggestions underneath. We also need to tune up the results page a bit.

Also coming soon: A new header, new user pages and sitewide https!

After that we need to update content pages to the new layout once and for all, as well as the forums, PMs and various leftover pages. Then we'll finally be completely mobile friendly, https and going head to head with lots of billion dollar websites.

Support NG!

These updates are thanks to the ongoing Support from the community!

Thank you everyone who has become a supporter and I hope many more of you consider jumping aboard. Ad rates are trending towards zero and with enough support we can move away from ads completely. Imagine if you got paid for your content views and never had to worry what advertisers thought of it! Not to mention no ugly ads on your pages. We really need to get there.

Halloween Spooktacular

Please see my post about our annual Halloween Spooktacular! If you plan to make a scary / creepy / Halloween themed game, movie, art, song or story in the next two months, you should totally participate. Be sure to tell all your creative friends about it, too; there are prizes!

Need Input

Finally this is just one mock-up but what would you think if you came to NG and it looked something like this:

[ChronoNomad]

The new Search is a thing of beauty, Tom. Really looking forward to the other new features coming down the pipe, as well!

Will this new search functionality be extending to all areas of Newgrounds? It's on the Front Page and main Portal pages, but the old style still comes up on individual submissions and places like here in the Forum threads.

[robotman5]

Awesome!

[CaptainJackTHAC0]

That screenshot looks awesome! One of the things I prefer about the mobile over desktop is the little red numbers for notifications- looks really cool on the desktop version too!

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 11:09 AM, KungFuSpaceBarbarian wrote: That screenshot looks awesome! One of the things I prefer about the mobile over desktop is the little red numbers for notifications- looks really cool on the desktop version too!

Yeah one of the goals is for mobile and desktop to feel more unified.

[TheAstra]

Aww, no more Tank-Man next to the logo?

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 11:13 AM, TheAstra wrote: Aww, no more Tank-Man next to the logo?

If we move it out of the header, it would have a nice big spot in the footer.

[sniktdude]

Every time I try to search something: "Error closed off to supporters"

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 11:16 AM, sniktdude wrote: Every time I try to search something: "Error closed off to supporters"

Whoooooops! THANK YOU for pointing that out!

[MysticSkillz]

Looks good Tom; page looks more simple design which isn't bad, only thing I would say is to keep the profile, message and notification icons on the left side of the page since we pretty much used to it being there and the Newgrounds on the right side. Animated profile gifs and user banners would be fun as well. That's just my two cents.

[Afro-Ninja]

The new search is great, probably one of the best additions I've seen. Being re-directed to google was always a little off-putting. Not sure if it's intentional, but I see two versions of the search: the unified search bar on the home page that has auto-complete, and the more "focused" version that appears when viewing this forum post (and doesn't have auto-complete/suggestions)

[Shufflehound]

The screenshot looks excellent, although circle profile pic crops I think are an obnoxious trend that wrecks the image. And I hope the tank makes it into the banner. That's the iconic logo!
Very happy to see the reply system updated also

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 11:51 AM, Afro-Ninja wrote: The new search is great, probably one of the best additions I've seen. Being re-directed to google was always a little off-putting. Not sure if it's intentional, but I see two versions of the search: the unified search bar on the home page that has auto-complete, and the more "focused" version that appears when viewing this forum post (and doesn't have auto-complete/suggestions)

Pages with the old layout are still using the same html that includes the category shortcut. They are going to the new results though. It will get even more disparate when we make additional changes to the new header... Will be nice when it's all under the new layout.

Also thrilled to be done with those google results.

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 11:51 AM, Afro-Ninja wrote: The new search is great, probably one of the best additions I've seen. Being re-directed to google was always a little off-putting. Not sure if it's intentional, but I see two versions of the search: the unified search bar on the home page that has auto-complete, and the more "focused" version that appears when viewing this forum post (and doesn't have auto-complete/suggestions)

Also on the topic of removing Google's hold on stuff, shit like this:

http://gizmodo.com/yes-google-uses-its-power-to-quash-ideas-it-doesn-t-li-1798646437

[AlbeGian]

I love the new interface! :D
It looks very dinamic and I like the smooth design. I feel too comfortable with this, nice :D

[Mace121]

At 9/6/17 10:56 AM, TomFulp wrote: We just launched our new search! Some notes:
[notes]

Need Input

Finally this is just one mock-up but what would you think if you came to NG and it looked something like this:

It may look fine & all, but the minimalist vector artsyle is overrated, nowadays.

[Intrapath]

Really awesome to see the new search system launch, works great! About the site mock-up, I'm digging it. Wasn't sure how I felt about the content boxes "floating", disconnected from one another, so I whipped up a quick and dirty mock-up of my own that connected them, and put thin lines between each of the submissions in the Daily Picks. I also wonder how this would look with the fonts that Luis chose for his latest mock-up that he posted in the Supporter forum about 2 weeks ago, especially for the header items and Site News section. I thought those looked fantastic.

[GrimJimmy]

In my opinion, the design seems a little overly-simplified (plus, changing the logo to plain, boring flat art). I like the idea of giving more options and choices, but by the way it's all laid out, it almost looks like you're trying to compete with Google+...

[Mich]

Congrats on the launch of the new search! It looks really damn powerful, should go a long way in finding very specific things.

As for the frontpage mockup, I think it looks excellent. I mainly am a fan of the decluttering of the boxes on the page; they currently have a lot of "chrome" around the edges that takes away from the content. The colours in the mockup are great too.

I'm not sure about the circular profile pics. Facebook just rolled out an update where everywhere a profile pic shows it's circular (except user pages apparently) and I have to say it bugs me. Personally I'd only aim for a circular profile pic where the pic is not configed to a rectangular box; I think that'd make for cleaner perceived alignment. I think it looked good circular on the upcoming user page design though - as there it isn't confined to a rectangular box.

Other than that, I do like the floating boxes as they are, I'd just make sure the horizontal and vertical margin between the boxes is identical.

</mytwocents>

[Psychopath]

At 9/6/17 10:56 AM, TomFulp wrote: Need Input

Finally this is just one mock-up but what would you think if you came to NG and it looked something like this:

I would think what I thought last time you showed this to us; that I'm on a shitty Youtube ripoff site.

Don't do it.

[Wegra]

Not a bad layout although I think you need to make the logo bigger and add the Tank in. Cant have Newgrounds without the tank!

[PegasuTV]

New design is looking pretty pretty.

Also search is real nice and neat and working perfectly, just tested it, Things are looking beautiful!
I wanna try and become a supporter by the end of this year

[Kieran]

nice im loving the new search at least we dont have to use google every time we want to search for stuff on newgrounds

[Evark]

Where's @liljim ? I suppose this means 'after the weekend' jokes are no longer fashionable?

[squidly]

That mock up looks great to me :)

[aListers]

At 9/6/17 10:56 AM, TomFulp wrote: Finally this is just one mock-up but what would you think if you came to NG and it looked something like this:

I'd miss the tank a lot. It looks less newgroundy - not much newgrounds colours or themes like we've had for many years. It doesn't look like I'd have any problems with it functionally though.

[CalebJordan360]

Dope!

[OneThousandMeeps]

At 9/6/17 10:56 AM, TomFulp wrote: Finally this is just one mock-up but what would you think if you came to NG and it looked something like this:

It looks pretty good (ignore my response mood), though I think the colors of "Community" and "Your Feed" are a little too close to the background. On a separate note, I think a squircle is a better fit for the profiles than circles. It keeps the rounded shape but doesn't overly crop it.

[Whirlguy]

Perfect! Gonna try this new search right away since I'm still in need of a chase song for the spooktacular. I might be biting off more than I can chew for this animation but at least I started off early... Loving the fresh look and the advanced options are terrific! Who do I thank?

[TomFulp]

At 9/6/17 04:27 PM, Whirlguy wrote: Perfect! Gonna try this new search right away since I'm still in need of a chase song for the spooktacular. I might be biting off more than I can chew for this animation but at least I started off early... Loving the fresh look and the advanced options are terrific! Who do I thank?

@Liljim tackled Elasticsearch, @BrenTheMan set up the server cluster and @PsychoGoldfish did the front-end html/css!