Omgili is a search engine designed to index web-based discussion boards.

Anyone doing some serious research on a topic will know that regular web sites and support pages seldom give the exact information you need when you are looking for something specific – let’s say a computer problem or the search for a specific product.

However, the web is huge, and normally there will have been someone out there having been in the same tight spot. Moreover, many of them will have posted their question to an online discussion forum, getting advice from all the experts hanging around in such social communities.

If you have been online for a while, you will have found your favorit foums, places with commentators knowledgeable in you field of work. Search engine marketing people will, for instance, frequent places like Webmaster World and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Some questions regarding search engine marketing and the needs of a specific industry, however, may have been posted elsewhere. Hence it could be useful to be able to search all kinds of discussion forums for instructions, site information, news and so on.

Another reason for using a specialized discussion forum search engine is that many discussion forum search engines (i.e. the search engine provided by the discussion board software) stinks. A forum like Webmaster World actually abandoned their own search engine, asking participants to use Google or other search engines.

What is Omgili?
Enter Omgili, a search engine designed to index web-based discussion forums.

According to Ran Geva of Omgili, Omgili’s search algorithm analyzes forums not as a simple web page, but as an active discussion with a title, topic and replies.

â€?Many times you will have a question that has already been answered,â€? he says. â€?Using Omgili, you can avoid posting already asked questions and quickly find your answer. Using Omgili’s advanced search capabilities you can choose to independently search titles, topics or just the replies of a discussion.â€?

Advanced search options
Omgili is testing andvanced searching, including the use of wildcards, phrase searching and Boolean queries (OR, AND, NOT). You may use brackets to construct more complex queries.

You may boost the relevance level of a term or site/server using the caret, “^”, symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching.

The advanced options can be found by following a link under the �Omgili Search� button. There is also a shortcut to some advanced features: Double click on a search term you have entered and an information icon appears over the search box. Point your mouse to this icon and a menu of shortcuts appears.

Discussion board owners
Omgili is in beta, but already gathers information from tens of thousands forums and millions of discussions.

Board owners can submit their sites to be indexed by Omgili’s crawlers, although there is no guarantee that they will be included. Omgili’s Crawlers recognize board software such as phpBB, VBulletin, YaBB, SMF, Invision, Snitz and FuseTalk. However, other forums may also be included.

Forum owners may use the robots.txt file to stop Omgili from spidering a site.

Adds Geva: â€?It’s simple to integrate Omgili search into a forum; the board owner can customize the look and feel of the results to fit the board theme, and results can be limited to his board.â€?