Search API
Getting Started
What is the search API?
The Second Life Search API allows you to search the virtual world of Second Life for Events, Groups, People, Places, and this Wiki. Linden Lab has purchased a Google Search Appliance to index web pages that they create at 3AM and 3PM each day and host on a separate web server. It can take up to three days for results to actually get indexed, but it is often just one day.
The Second Life Search API is currently using a Google search appliance as the core of the API. You can search against the world using a standard web browser.
The following URL's may be used:
| URL | Details |
| http://search.secondlife.com/search.php?q=hippo | External Browser |
| http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo | In-world browser built into SL Viewer/Client |
| http://secondlife.com/app/search/search_proxy.php?q=hippo | Redirects to http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php |
Paging
Each query will return 10 results at the most. The parameter passed for paging is "start". This is a zero-based index identifying what record to start with. To view page 1, the following URL may be used.
q= [search for something here] &start= [(page - 1) * 10]
Page 1 http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&start=0
Page 2 http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&start=10
Page 3 http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&start=20
...
Page 100 http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&start=990
Note Any results after page 100 will return an error message similar to the following:
The requested URL /client_search.php&lang=en-us&session=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&dbg=0&m=n&t=n was not found on this server.
Location
When searching from the viewer, the location of the avatar is passed along to the Search API. This is optional. The coordinates do not appear to have any effect on the search results. They have the potential to show results based on your current location, (such as displaying nearby snapshots on Snapzilla). The following parameters are used.
| Parameter | Data type | Description |
| Region | string | Region name where avatar is located. |
| X | integer | Position of avatar in region coordinates on X axis |
| Y | integer | Position of avatar in region coordinates on Y axis |
| Z | integer | Position of avatar in region coordinates on Z axis |
http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo®ion=Here&x=128&y=128&z=36
Mature Content
By default, the Search API blocks mature content in its results. A parameter "m" may be specified to allow or block mature content. To allow mature content, the value should be "y" meaning "Yes". Blocking mature content will be "n" for "No".
In addition, you can still filter out mature results by appending a flag to the query "+-SLS_MATURE".
Note: %20 represents a URL Encoded space
Category
To limit the results to specific categories, the "s" parameter is used. This value defaults to "All", but can also be set to one of the following: All, Events, Groups, People, Places, Wiki.
Language
There are a few parameters that identify the language to display the results in. Although the searchable content provided by the residents is not translated, portions of the page are. This includes headers and informational text (such as the number of matching results).
The language (also known as local or culture) specified for the viewers user interface is passed along in the "lang" parameter. These are ISO 639-1 Values for language, and an optional country code (ISO 3166-1). Not all languages are supported. Some languages are in beta.
| Language | Code | URI |
| Spanish | es | http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&lang=es |
| United States English | en-us | http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&lang=en-us |
In addition, another attribute appears in querys when navigating between pages using a standard web browser. It is assumed that this may represent the same value, but only provides the language code without the country code.
http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&hl=en
Output
At the moment, it appears that there are two fields that deal with output. The first "output" is probably telling the search appliance to return xml formatted data. The "client" parameter is then transforming the results into a different format. Since the client is raw_xml_frontend, it is probably not doing any transformation at all and sending us the exact output from the Google appliance.
| Parameter | Value | Notes |
| output | xml_no_dtd | xml results from appliance. output format. |
| client | raw_xml_frontend | transform into xml results for user agent |
http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=hippo&output=xml_no_dtd&client=raw_xml_frontend
Tags
Tags allow content to be flagged with special attributes. Tags are used in the query of search results (q=hippo +-SLS_MATURE)
| Tag | Description |
| SLS_MATURE | Page contains mature content |
Miscellaneous Information
There are many other parameters that show up when observing the communications of the Search API. The following properties have been seen, but not identified properly.
| Parameter | Default Value | Notes / Guesses |
| t | n | Guessing teen grid. Teen = Y, Adult = N. Without proper session, defaults to N |
| session | 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 | This value changes each time that the SL Viewer logs into the main grid. When querying against the appliance with a standard browser and navigating pages, the value is an empty Guid. |
| site | default_collection | |
| lr | (blank) | |
| access | p | authorization to crawl and index secured content ...? |
| sort | date:D:L:d1 | Apparently this "phrase" is all over the net in regards to the default sorting for Google search appliance. Guessing it is sorting by date. Other option is relevance? |
| dbg | 0 | Debug Flag? |
| filter | 0 | |
| sa | N | |
| ie | UTF-8 | input encoding |
Headers
The following headers have been captured while querying against the google search appliance with an in-world viewer.
Host: search.secondlife.com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; chrome://navigator/locale/navigator.properties; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080314 SecondLife/1.20.15.92456 (Second Life Release; silver skin) Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate Keep-Alive: 300 Connection: keep-alive Cookie: __utmz=########.##########.#.#.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=########.##################.##########.##########.##########.###; __utmc=########
Work-around for LSL
It should be noted that LSL scripts using ht llHTTPRequest method can not query against the google appliance directly. Linen Lab has blocked all access due to security reasons of requests comming from machines on the local network. To work around this, many people use proxy services. One popular service is offered by google. It is originally intended to make content available for mobile phones. An example of the service in action can be seen by going to the following URL:
Proxy search form http://www.google.com/gwt/n
Example of proxy search URL http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.secondlife.com%2Fclient_search.php%3Fq%3Dhippo&_gwt_noimg=1
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the method of fine tuning the name and description of content and links to further promote the position of a listing based on relevance on the search results.
Groups
Regions
Regions will always show up before parcel listings when their name contains a keyword that the end-user had searched for.
Parcels
The search engine searches for parcel name and description only if the parcel had been marked to show up in search results (30 L$ per week).
| Vector | Description | Improvement |
| Date | This is when the parcel was last purchased, transferred, subdivided, or joined. | Do not sell, transfer, join, or divide your parcel. |
| Title | Describes the parcel | Make clear and concise |
| Description | Describe your parcel. | Add a few relevant keywords within the content or at the end of the description. |
| Parcel Object Name | Make descriptive of what objects are found on the parcel, products sold, etc. | Add a few relevant keywords within the name. Do not use duplicate named objects. Mark to show in search results. |
| Picks | This counts as an incoming link. Paying/Verified residents have better weight on rankings. | Encourage others to add your parcel to their picks tab on the profile. (See picks camping) |
| Classifieds | This counts as an incoming link. Keywords matching in a classified as well as a higher price increase the ranking. | Find a keyword that will get you into the top 10 classifieds for an affordable price. |
| Foot Traffic | This counts as an incoming link from a hidden "top #" page. For every 10 minutes that individual avatars spend at your parcel, foot traffic is increased by 1. | Host popular events. Also see camping chairs and bots (although frowned upon). |
| Mature | If parcel or any parcel object is flagged as mature, then parcel will only be listed in mature results. | Provide only PG content to reach larger audience. |
Events
Residents
Residents must enable their profile to show in search results. When a resident name matches, an additional link directly to the profile is displayed regardless if the resident marked their profile to show up in search results.
Parcel Objects
All objects with the default name of "object" are ignored by search results.
The object must be rezzed on a listed parcel in order to be searched. An object within the contents of a vendor will not be searched.
Only the root prim of an object will be searched. Objects made of many linked prims will not index each prim.