There are a couple things that are currently not that great in ZenMagick. One of them is the search.
Now, with the new fulltext feature things might be a bit better, but there is still a lot that can be improved. One way to improve a site search is to use a 3rd party. There is, of course, something like Google, but there are alternatives.
With my recent change of jobs it seems quite natural to recommend SLI Systems. I should also add that mentioning or recommending SLI doesn’t gain me anything (other than perhaps a slightly more secure daytime job).
So, one of the things about SLI is that for simplicity the search results page is hosted and generated by SLI. To avoid breaking domain borders, this can be done on a subdomain, for example something like search.mysite.com.
I am toying with the idea of actually writing a new plugin to make using SLI simpler for ZenMagick sites. Beside the obvious advantage for sites interested in using SLI I think there are a few areas to cover that I haven’t touched yet, so it might be an interesting exercise no matter what.
Another thing to consider is that SLI offers a extensive set of tools to analyse search traffic, some SEO options and, one of my pet issues, the ability to not only search products, but the whole site. In particular for sites that make use of reviews, etc this could be interesting, IMHO.
Any other suggestions for improving the site search are, of course, most welcome.