Sharepoint 2007 Search

I have been working on SharePoint 2007 search for quiet some time now, but i remember whenever i had an issues i had too look all over the web for finding solution. So thought of consolidating those search items, so that anyone can find search related features at one consolidating location.

Whenever there is a requirement for implementing search in any of the projects. Two important queries comes into my mind:
1. Whether this can be achieved using OOB search?
2. Is this the best fit for custom search (search using API's).

So broadly search implementation could be categorized in 2 categories:

1. OOB Search (Out of Box search has rich set of functionality, and is the best option while implementing search).
2. Custom Search using SharePoint API's (There will be scenerios where OOB search doesn't always suffice the requirements and custom code needs to be written).

Out Of Box Search:
SharePoint has rich set of inbuilt functionalities and is a huge leap from earlier versions of MOSS.
Learning OOB Search capabilities involves knowledge of 2 parts:

• Search webparts
  
• Search configuration in Central Admin

Search webparts
Sharepoint consists of following webparts:

1. Search Box Webpart: This webpart provides the textbox for inserting search keyword and scope dropdown within which search needs to be performed. Scope dropdown lists the different scope values and these values keeps on changing depending upon the page user is on i.e. by default it will have a scope of searching within the site, but when the user navigates to some list/library page it will display an additional value of searching within that list.
2. Search Summary Web part: This webpart provides the Did you mean functionality.
3. Search Actions Links webpart: This webpart provides functionality of sorting the search results by Relevance or Modified Date. It also facilitates subscription to blogs or Alert Me functionality on search keyword.

   "This webpart does not facilitate customization or addition of new links"

4. Search Best Bets webpart: This webpart provides flexibility to admin for providing the recommended search results section when a particular keyword(s) is searched.
   
   • Configuration of Best Bets against set of keyword(s) can be done within the search configuration settings available in Site Collection Administration section on Site Settings page.
   • Xslt of this webpart can also be customized to show certain set of fields or formatting the results. " Though you cannot add any additional fields to be displayed apart from what are predefined within Best Bet settings section"

   • "This is a sealed webpart so you cannot extend this webpart either".
     

     
     
5. Search Statistics webpart: Displays statistics such as the number of results shown on the page, the total amount of results, and the time it took to execute the search query.

   "Not much customization possible within this webpart apart from text to be displayed"

6. Search Paging webpart : Displays page links on the search results page, used for navigating to search pages back and forth.
7. Search Core Results webpart: This is the most important webpart in search results. This webpart is used to display the actual search results. Thanks to MS, this webpart is highly customizable and configurable:
• Propertied to configure searching and default sorting.
• Options for tuning the results query. Duplicate results can be displayed or hidden from the user.
• Stemming can be enabled or disabled.
• Enable or disable noise word queries.
• SelectColumns helps in fetching custom columns within search results.
• XSLT can be customized enabling formatting of search results.
  

I will try to accomodate customized search features and search setting features in additional posts

Additional Resources for Search webparts:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608302%28office.12%29.aspx