I recently wrote a post asking does WordPress really needs a search function any more. The general consensus was that although there were other, easier options out there a default was still needed and despite my thoughts that it should be as an optional plugin rather than a core function I agreed with that.
Since I wrote that post I have been developing this new theme with the intention of using Google search instead of the internal search. I have now added this (Check the sidebar ) but this isn’t a direct replacement.
One of the points of the new theme was to more closely align the blogs that I have. I split one up into to two and effectively restarted part of it, and I also added a new blog for another blog platform.
The benefit of using the Google search box is that it lets me offer a search that includes all of my blogs; for example, searching for WordPress will give you any posts that mention WordPress on my other blogs.
The downside, of course, are the adverts but they come with the search so whatever right?
I still need to look at the options to see how I can best optimise it for content, rather than archives pages and similar, but on the whole I think this is a good alternative to the built in search.