Monocle Search: supercharged search for Squarespace sites

Hey all, we just launched Monocle Search, and I thought this is the perfect place to let everyone know about it – and collect your feedback!

While Squarespace has many cool features, search isn't really one of them. We've heard from many Squarespace experts that the existing search feature just isn't up to scratch (because it's slow and often doesn't find critical information). So we built a better one, and you can try it for free over at monocle-search.com.

You can see in the attached video how it works – an overlay pops up and brings you results while typing, all across your pages. It's also super simple to implement (a small code snippet is enough – literally takes 2 minutes end-to-end. Check our website for a full walk-through). Our main focus was to make it fast and accurate, and I think we have succeeded!

I hope this is useful to many of you, and I'd love to get your input:

• what do you like or not like about this?
• what do you think about the landing page?
• is the price point appropriate?

Every bit of feedback is welcome :)

We also have an affiliate program, so if you're interested in that, please hit me up!

Greetings from Berlin, Germany – build on!

Felix

Hi @Felix_DNH

We're all waiting for a simple and cost effective search solution for Squarespace that doesn't require a lot of work like swiftype, SearchiQ or Algolia and so this looks really interesting! 🙂

Regarding feedback, I couldn't find answers to these questions:

1. Does this search tool work for newer Squarespace features like Member Sites and Paywalled content?
2. Can the search results include a relevant thumbnail image for each result?

Can you confirm if these are offered in this initial version?

Hey @paul2009, firstly apologies for totally missing your reply! I only got an email today with a notification.

Secondly, great to read that Monocle is of interest to you. To answer your questions:

1. It will – this was not in the initial version, but it's on the roadmap sooner rather than later. No concrete ETA yet. This is actually not super straightforward even from a design perspective – e.g. do you want results to show in the search, but then not be accessible unless one is logged in? Or do you want a separate search just for members? Etc.
   I'd love to get a little insight into what your exact requirements / problems are.
    
2. We haven't discussed a thumbnail so far. What would this add beyond the text snippets that we're already providing? Again, would be good to get some insight.

If you're up for a 10 minutes call to help us steer the development in the right direction, feel free to book a slot here: https://calendly.com/felix-donoharm/demo-call – or just reach out at hello@monocle-search.com. 

20 minutes ago, Felix_DNH said:

1. We haven't discussed a thumbnail so far. What would this add beyond the text snippets that we're already providing? Again, would be good to get some insight.

 

Pictures speack better than word and have a higher visual hierarchy, so agreed with Paul, definitly necessary 🙂
https://www.creator-fuel.com/blog/what-is-visual-hierarchy-in-design-explained-with-examples

Hey Florence, thanks for the link! We actually had picture snippets in an early version, and it's possible we can bring them back. But I'd like to be 100% clear on the why. It does look much more appealing visually, that's for sure!

Possibly something for a higher pricing tier, together with AI search (i.e. connected terms)?

5 hours ago, Felix_DNH said:

We haven't discussed a thumbnail so far. What would this add beyond the text snippets that we're already providing?

1 hour ago, Felix_DNH said:

We actually had picture snippets in an early version, and it's possible we can bring them back. But I'd like to be 100% clear on the why. It does look much more appealing visually, that's for sure!

Images will make the search results more visually appealing but, importantly, images provide an instant visual cue about each result. This makes it easier for users to identify the result they want, leading to higher click-through rates, increased traffic and higher conversions. 

I'd argue that this is especially important for products:

 or 

Thanks @paul2009, great example. I can see the use case especially for products!