One of the most powerful enhancements you can make to a Drupal site is to replace Drupal's out-of-the-box search functionality with Apache Solr (http://lucene.apache.org/solr/). On first look this may seem like a daunting task because it requires access to a server running Solr. However the best of breed Drupal hosting options (like http://getpantheon.com and http://acquia.com) give your site access to a Solr server by default. At that point you only have to install the Drupal Solr module (http://drupal.org/project/apachesolr) and do some light configuration to unleash the power of Solr.
Examples of Solr functionality include:
Faceted search
Click this link to search for "application" http://techcommons.berkeley.edu/search/apachesolr_search/application
The blocks "Filter by Category" and "Filter by Tag" list "facets" allowing the user to drill down to the desired information in the results.
Sorting of results
See the "Sort by" block in the results above
Text snippet showing the context in which the keyword was found.
"More like this"
"Did you mean" for spelling errors
Come learn more at Andre Angelantoni's (http://drupal.org/user/69305) presentation next week!
Berkeley Drupal Users Group: 8/23/11 12-1:30pm
WHERE: UC Berkeley Campus: Barrows Hall 60 (basement room)
MAP: http://groups.drupal.org/berkeley/map
Upcoming BDUG Presentations:
9/27 Deborah Fuzetto (http://drupal.org/user/146414) presents her cutting-edge Drupal 7 site http://www.bluecoat.com
BDUG: 8/23 12-1:30pm Andre Angelantoni on Apache Solr and Drupal