Squarespace 4.0 Release

Big release tonight :) Between the features released now, and the 3.5 release updates, we’ve decided to move the version number up to 4.0. Here’s what’s new:

• Full-Site Search Component — It’s been a long time coming, but we wanted to make sure we did it right. Squarespace’s new site search does a number of things that set it totally apart from what you’re used to seeing on small website search:

• Immediate Updates — Squarespace refreshes its search server with your content as you update it — there is no waiting for your site to be indexed. If you were to use Google’s drop in search box on your site (or an RSS based search drop-in), there is an indexing delay time that can range from 1 hour to (more likely) days before your content is indexed.
• Audience System Integration — Squarespace’s search operates on data stored in modules that is not available to the public. That means if you’ve got a private site that contains content that needs to be indexed, search results are only exposed to searchers based on the permissions you’ve granted them within your site. It’s completely impossible to obtain this sort of functionality via 3rd party search components.
• Content Aware — Our search does not operate by scraping your web pages (which can yield awkward and broken search results). We instead operate by indexing your underlying objects directly — resulting in cleaner and more accurate search results.
• Per-Module Search — You can add a search box to any searchable module by entering [ SQUARESPACE-MODULE-SEARCH ] (without spaces between the []s) to the module header. Upon saving, this tag will be automatically translated into a search box specifically for searching the module you’ve added it to.

• FAQ Component — We’ve added a component that assists in creating FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) lists. We’re implementing this module on our manual for our own FAQ. Combined with the Search module — this component can be quite powerful for powering customer help sites (available in business level accounts only).

• Google Maps Component — We’ve added a component that allows you to easily add small Google Maps to your site.

• Improved Member Communication Settings — We’ve added settings that allow you to restrict intra-member emailing which was previously available by clicking on a member’s name via a comment or journal entry.

• RSS Component Upgrade — Our RSS component now displays FeedBurner feeds properly, if you’ve specified one in your Journal component.

• Site Backup Improvements — We’ve improved the way full site backups work. Backups are now processed in the background, and you will be emailed when your backup file is available. Your past 5 site backup files will also be stored automatically within General Storage.

• Email Based Logins — The login module will now accept an email address OR a login name for account login.

PLEASE NOTE: The initial search module will be operating overnight to index your sites for the first time. This is a one-time operation that will take some time to complete. Please wait until tomorrow evening for your site’s search results to come online. We’ll update this entry when the initial processing cycle has been completed.

Update on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 02:00AM by A. Casalena

Search Indexing Update - We’re about half done processing. We expect the full indexing process to be completed by 10:00AM EST.

Update on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 03:48PM by A. Casalena

Search — As of this morning, full site search indexing has been completed for everyone.

Session Timeouts — Also, an issue we’ve been tracking throught the day that was resulting in very short session expiration times for users in some browsers has been resolved. Note that if you get logged out of Squarespace for any reason — just follow the on screen instructions to re-submit your previously sent data.

You can never lose data by being logged out of Squarespace due to a session expiration.