Hmmm... I assume that you'll be upgrading to EPiServer 5 during this project? The text-based search in EPiServer5 isn't that strong imho, as it doesn't support the kind of search functionality that users increasingly expect such as "fuzzy logic", search suggestions, etc. 

That said, the property-based search in EPiServer is powerful - combining this with a stronger text-based search engine is a longer term strategy worth considering. It all depends on how important search is to your site's users - you should have some stats on how often search is being used?

There are other third-party options for search in EPiServer - have a look on http://www.episerver.com/en/EPiMore/ for some suggestions.

Hello Olof,

I recommend that you don't use the build in search in EPiServer because it really terrible.

 A cheap alternative is to use Google Search API as I have done on my site (http://epiwiki.se/developing/search a "as you type search" up in the right corner). It is extremely easy to implement that one takes 4 hour to make.

The problem with this kind of search is that you don't have full control of the crawling (because the search index is located att Google)- so if the site isn't updated so often it can take up to a week  for new content to be crawled.

Hi there, Olof!

I'd like to add that the free Search Server 2008 Express from Microsoft is a great alternative to implementing a superb search engine on a EPiServer website.

Ted Nyberg (EMVP) wrote an article about it:

http://tednyberg.com/post/Using-EPiServer-and-Microsoft-Search-Server-2008.aspx

Cheers! 

Thanks for Your replies!

/Olof