search
Search for most dynamically-generated websites is usually implemented as a server-side feature. The server generates and maintains an index of all unique words and their occurrences on the site. When a client runs a search query, the query is sent to the server which then looks up the query in its index and returns a list of results, which are then rendered on the client.
An approach like this is clearly infeasible on static websites such as those generated using a static site generator like Jekyll, so one has to come up with alternative solutions.
As promised in my previous post, I spent some time today understanding Bloom filters. While the wiki page intimidated me a bit when I first looked at it, it’s actually pretty simple once you sit down and patiently read through the whole thing.
Bloom filters are a lot like hash maps, except that they save a lot on the space occupied for maintaining an index of your data at the cost of a minor chance of false positives.