We are excited to launch a new search experience on pkg.go.dev.
These changes were motivated by feedback we’ve received about the search page, and we hope you enjoy them. This blog post provides an overview of what you can expect to see on the site.
Grouping related package search results
Search results for packages in the same module are now grouped together. The most relevant package for the search request is highlighted. This change was made to reduce noise when several packages in the same module may be relevant to a search. For example, searching for “markdown” shows a row listing “Other packages in module” for several of the results.
Results for different major versions of the same module are also now grouped together. The highest major version containing a tagged release is highlighted. For example, searching for “github” shows the v39 module, with older versions listed as “Other major versions”.
Lastly, we have reorganized information related to imports, versions, and licenses. We also added links to these tabs directly from the search results page.
Introducing symbol search
Over the past year, we have introduced more information about symbols on pkg.go.dev and worked on improving the way that information is presented. We launched the ability to view the API history of any package. We also label symbols that are deprecated in the documentation index and hide them by default in the package documentation.
With this search update, pkg.go.dev now also supports searching for symbols in Go packages. When a user types a symbol into the search bar, they will be brought to a new search tab for symbol search results. There are a few different ways in which pkg.go.dev identifies that users are searching for a symbol. We’ve added examples to the pkg.go.dev homepage, and detailed instructions to the search help page.
Feedback
We’re excited to share this new search experience with you, and we would love to hear your feedback!
As always, please use the “Report an Issue” button at the bottom of every page on the site to share your input.
If you’re interested in contributing to this project, pkg.go.dev is open source! Check out the contribution guidelines to find out more.
Julie Qiu
This article is available on The Go Blog under a CC BY 4.0 DEED license.
Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
