iMegaSearch
A full-screen search overlay with grouped results as you type: products, categories, articles and tags. Matched in the browser in milliseconds, with no server request per keystroke.
Search that does not wait for the server
Most live-search plugins send a request on every keystroke, and on a typical host each request boots WordPress and all of its plugins. That is why live search so often feels slow.
iMegaSearch builds one small static index of your content instead. The browser downloads it once, and every search after that is matched on the visitor's device. On the catalog site it was first built for, search went from 1 to 2 seconds to about 4 to 6 milliseconds in our tests.
Everything search should do
No external services, no tracking and no account needed. Everything runs on your site and in the visitor's browser.
Full-screen overlay
Results appear as the visitor types, with the matched words highlighted and popular searches as one-click buttons.
Grouped results
Products, categories, articles, tags or any public post type and taxonomy, each with its own heading and a "See all" link.
Results page
A full page with a tab and a count for each group. Use it as your theme's search page or place it with a shortcode.
Sensible ranking
Title matches always come first. Body text matches from the start of words, so "rust" does not return every page containing "trusted".
Keeps itself current
The index rebuilds a couple of minutes after content changes, plus a daily refresh, a rebuild button and a WP-CLI command.
Works with your theme
Open it from a shortcode button, from your theme's own search icon via a CSS selector, or when a search field is focused.
Accessible
A proper dialog with focus trapping, Escape to close, focus returned to the trigger and support for reduced motion.
WooCommerce ready
Products, product categories and tags work out of the box, with categories shown under each product.
Installation
Shortcodes: [imegasearch_button] and [imegasearch_results]. WP-CLI: wp imegasearch rebuild.
- Install from Plugins, Add New, or upload the imegasearch folder to wp-content/plugins/.
- Activate it from the Plugins menu.
- Go to Settings, iMegaSearch and choose which content to include.
- Add the [imegasearch_button] shortcode to your header, or enter your theme's search icon selector under "Opened by".
- Save. The index is built straight away.
Frequently asked
In wp-content/uploads/imegasearch/index.json. It is written to a temporary file first and its URL carries a version, so visitors never see a half-written or stale file.
It holds titles, links, thumbnails, short excerpts and a compact word index of the body text. A shop with around a thousand products is typically a few hundred kilobytes before compression, and much less over the wire. It is downloaded once, when a visitor first opens search.
No. Only published posts without a password are indexed, and only public post types and taxonomies are offered.
The index rebuilds about two minutes after a change, so bulk edits trigger a single rebuild. It relies on WP-Cron, so on a quiet site it can take longer. Use Settings, iMegaSearch, Rebuild index now, or wp imegasearch rebuild.
Yes. Enter a CSS selector for the icon, such as .header-search, under "Opened by". Clicks on it open the overlay instead of the theme's own dropdown.
No. Everything runs on your own site and in the visitor's browser. There is no tracking and no account.
Release history
- First release on WordPress.org.
Make search feel instant
Free and hosted on WordPress.org. If it helps your site, a review means a lot, and feature requests are welcome in the support forum.