[wp-hackers] Search Results based on Geodata

[Michael D Adams]

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Mike Schinkel
<mikeschinkel at newclarity.net> wrote:
> On Jun 5, 2010, at 5:51 PM, Michael D Adams wrote:
>> My suggestion to plugins that want to offer this type query (or to
>> speed this query up if it ends up going into core) would be to require
>> sphinx: http://sphinxsearch.com/
>
> Using Sphinx is likely out of scope for this project,

What project?  Defining a geo schema for core WordPress and/or
building a basic core API/core plugin?

If that's what you mean, then I agree: way out of scope :)

> but what is required to host sphinx?  Wouldn't we need to have a VPS or our own host server to install and run it?

Yes - you need to install Sphinx somewhere.  It's not a solution
available to everyone, but it's a good one when you can do it.
It's pretty straightforward:
http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/current.html#installation

> Do you have specific experience with it?

Sphinx powers the WordPress.org Plugins Directory search.

We're experimenting with it a bit on some things for WordPress.com.