It’s been a while but we got new updates! been too busy writing code to write any blog posts. I wanted to cover some of the items that we have updated/added over the past three or four months. Here’s a partial list of the points that I think are the most important:
Added Meta Search
Unfiltered.me exposes a lot of new and powerful ways to search for data. This can be a bit overwhelming and unfamiliar. To solve this problem we have added the ability to search against metadata. Please see:
- Meta element – Wikipedia, Special tags that Google understands | Google Search Central
- SEO Titles, SEO Descriptions,
- Meta Tags, Meta Data Explained (webpresencesolutions.net)
for more information about what exactly the meta tag in the header of the html file does. So now when you open the search screen (from the mobile) or use the search (from the web or UWP) it defaults to the ‘Meta Desc’ option. When you enter data into the search field the application populates the dropdown with the matches. This closely mimics the behavior of existing search engines. As with other string search parameters you can specify conditions of:
- Contains
- Ends With
- Starts With
Many of these ‘Meta Desc’ can be linked together with either ‘And’ or ‘Or’ clauses.
Website
The existing website was replaced by a client Blazor (Blazor – Wikipedia) site in November of 2020. I was really concerned about the ability of the app store to put pressure on app developers by refusing to list their apps or demanding changes to them before listing. In addition to those concerns some users do not like to download and install an app. By utilizing Blazor we we able to reuse large amounts of existing code. We are very happy with the result. The site is focused around large screens. However it will work on a mobile platform. When Microsoft releases the AOT update (AoT compilation · Issue #5466 · dotnet/aspnetcore (github.com)) the speed with greatly increase.
Xamarin.Forms 5
In December of 2018 I opened a bug regarding the webview control and memory leaks (UWP: Webview: Memory Leak · Issue #4720 · xamarin/Xamarin.Forms (github.com)). This took a couple years for the Xamarin team to solve. They were able to include the fix in the Xamarin.Forms 5 release for UWP. This fixed the issue with the memory leaks in the UWP app. No more crashes! We are very, very excited about that. The flaw was very disappointing to discover in Xamarin UWP. The resulting experience with the UWP version of the app less than desirable. The user experience with the UWP application is much better now.
Cleaned up the Search Wizard
The search tool was simplified by removing the simple search wizard tool. After reviewing why we needed two search tools, a simple and complex one, we decided that having two was just making the app harder to use. We redesigned the search tool to place all the options in the top of the wizard. The user selects an option in the top of the control and the bottom of the control populates with the various search options that are available.
Unfiltered Search Engine on UWP. Search Results & Main Screen.The search tool was simplified by removing the simple search wizard tool. After reviewing why we needed two search tools, a simple and complex one, we decided that having two was just making the app harder to use. We redesigned the search tool to place all the options in the top of the wizard. The user selects an option in the top of the control and the bottom of the control populates with the various search options that are available.
We hope this cleans up the application and makes the process of identifying search parameters easier.
Shows how to set up a search for the meta description in the Unfiltered Search Engine.That’s a wrap!
Updates! I’m grinding along. Got to put the legos together. Bugs need fixed, updates added & new functionality thought up. As usual please email us at: blog@unfiltered.me with any questions or drop a comment.
Happy searching with the Unfiltered Search Engine!
