Init Live Search – AI-Powered, Related Posts, Slash Commands vs WP Live Search

Deliver an ultra-responsive search experience to your visitors — no page reloads, no jQuery, no lag. Init Live Search is a modern, lightweight, and fully accessible live search solution for WordPress — now with tag-aware matching, SEO metadata support, ACF integration, WooCommerce product filters, and customizable UI presets. It replaces the default with a clean, intuitive search modal powered entirely by the WordPress REST API. Everything loads in real-time — with zero disruption to browsing flow. Perfect for content-heavy blogs, WooCommerce stores, or even headless sites. Every interaction is fast, fluid, and designed to work across devices. It also brings AI-powered related posts and an advanced keyword generator — giving your visitors smarter ways to discover content. This plugin is part of the Init Plugin Suite — a collection of minimalist, fast, and developer-focused tools for WordPress. GitHub repository: https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-live-search What’s New in Version 1.8.x AI-Powered Related Posts: brand new [init_live_search_related_ai] shortcode Uses multi-signal scoring (tags, series, title bigrams, same_keyword via ACF, category, views, comments, freshness) Shares templates with [init_live_search_related_posts] (no extra styling needed) Fully filterable via new developer hooks: ai_candidates, ai_signals, ai_weights, ai_score Advanced Keyword Generator: upgraded algorithm for admin keyword suggestions Replaced TF-IDF with BM25 term weighting Added NPMI (fixed probability base) and Log-Likelihood Ratio (Dunning) for collocation strength Generates bigrams and trigrams for richer, more specific keyword suggestions Cross-document frequency penalty down-ranks phrases that are too generic across the site MMR (Maximal Marginal Relevance) selection ensures diverse, non-redundant final keywords Title-only source: clean signal, no excerpt noise, works reliably across all site types Unicode-safe, locale-aware stop words (Vietnamese & English), and soft fallback mode 404 Smart Redirect Added “Auto Redirect 404 to Best Match” mode driven by Init Live Search scoring Fully respects “Post Types to Include” settings Uses unified resolver + filters for extensible post-type handling Safety checks to avoid loops, invalid targets, and cross-type mismatches Developer Filters Expansion New filters added for AI related posts and keyword signals Complete list now includes over 20 filters (*_fallback, *_post_ids, *_results, *_weights, *_commands, etc.) Developers can hook into candidate pools, signal scores, and schema output with fine-grained control Performance Optimizations Smarter candidate pooling for related posts (recent + context-based) Pre-cached scoring loop for AI signals to minimize queries Safer regex handling in keyword processing to avoid PCRE errors Reduced memory footprint in bigram statistics without sacrificing accuracy Backward Compatible Enhancements [init_live_search_related_posts] and [init_live_search_related_ai] now share the same rendering pipeline Existing templates, schema, and CSS continue to work without modification Auto insert related posts still works and can be switched to AI mode via shortcode override Features Packed with everything a modern live search needs — and more: Live search via REST API (no admin-ajax, no jQuery) Smart tag-aware search mode (title + tag match) SEO metadata support: Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, TSF ACF field matching and customizable filters Synonym expansion with fallback scoring logic Slash commands: /recent, /popular, /tag, /id, /sku, /price, /coupon, etc. WooCommerce support: search by product, SKU, brand, attribute, variation, coupon Clean modal UI with keyboard navigation (↑ ↓ Enter Esc) Optional voice input (SpeechRecognition) Tooltip Quick Search (select text to trigger) Favorites system via heart icon or /fav commands Infinite scroll and smart category filter (no extra API) Deep linking: ?modal=search&term=... New [init_live_search] shortcode: insert input or icon anywhere UI presets: default, fullscreen, topbar — with full CSS override Local caching + analytics (CSV export, no personal data) Developer-ready: custom slash commands, REST filters, JS hooks Dark Mode Support Enable dark mode for the modal by either: Adding the dark class: document.querySelector(‘#ils-modal’)?.classList.add(‘dark’); Or using a global config: window.InitPluginSuiteLiveSearchConfig = { theme: ‘dark’ }; Options: dark, light, auto Admin Settings Choose post types to include in search Configure modal triggers (input focus, triple click, Ctrl+/) Enable slash commands (e.g. /recent, /tag, /id) Enable support for + and - keyword operators (must-have, must-not-have) Set default slash command to run on modal open (only if slash is enabled) Set debounce time and max results Choose search mode (title-only, tag-aware, full content) Define custom ACF fields to include in search (optional) Enable Search in SEO Metadata (Yoast, Rank Math, etc.) Toggle excerpt display below each result (1-line contextual snippet) Toggle fallback logic (bigram/trim) Enable synonym expansion and manage synonym mappings (JSON editor) Enable Search Analytics to log queries (no personal data stored) Set max words for tooltip search Enable voice input (SpeechRecognition API) Enable result caching (localStorage) Choose frontend UI style (default, fullscreen, or topbar) Allow theme override via init-live-search/style.css Automatically insert related posts after content or comments (optional) Option to disable all built-in CSS completely Add default UTM parameter to result links Define or auto-generate keyword suggestions Keyboard Shortcuts Arrow Up / Down — navigate between results Arrow Right — add selected result to favorites (if not already added) Arrow Left — remove selected result from favorites Enter — open selected result or submit Escape — close modal and reset state Slash (/) — start a command instantly (e.g., /recent, /id 123) Developer Reference: Shortcodes, Filters, and Hooks Shortcodes [init_live_search] Display a search icon or input anywhere that opens the Init Live Search modal. Attributes: – type: icon (default) or input – choose between a clickable icon or a search box – placeholder: (optional) text inside the input if type="input" – label: (optional) adds a label next to the icon if type="icon" – class: (optional) add custom classes like dark, my-style, etc. – stroke_width: (optional) set the stroke width for the search icon (default: 1) – radius: (optional) override the border radius of the input form (default: 9999px from CSS; only applied if value differs) [init_live_search_related_posts] Display a list of related posts (static HTML) based on post title or keyword, optimized for SEO and fully themable. Attributes: – id: (optional) the post ID to find related posts for (defaults to current post) – count: (optional) number of posts to display (default: 5) – keyword: (optional) override the keyword used for finding related posts – template: (optional) layout template to use — default, grid, classic, compact, thumbright – css: 1 (default) or 0 – disable default CSS if you want to fully style it yourself – schema: 1 (default) or 0 – disable JSON-LD ItemList output for SEO schema [init_live_search_related_ai] Display a list of AI-powered related posts using multi-signal scoring (tags, series, title bigrams, same_keyword via ACF, category, views, comments, freshness). Uses the same templates as [init_live_search_related_posts], so no extra styling is required. Attributes: – id: (optional) the post ID to find related posts for (defaults to current post) – count: (optional) number of posts to display (default: 5) – post_type: (optional) restrict results to one or more post types (default: post) – template: (optional) layout template to use — default, grid, classic, compact, thumbright – css: 1 (default) or 0 – disable default CSS if you want to fully style it yourself – schema: 1 (default) or 0 – disable JSON-LD ItemList output for SEO schema Filters for Developers Init Live Search includes many filters to help developers customize behavior and output at various stages of the search flow. Full documentation (with code samples & advanced usage): Using Filters in Init Live Search Popular filters init_plugin_suite_live_search_enable_fallback Enable or disable fallback logic when few results are found. init_plugin_suite_live_search_post_ids Customize the array of post IDs returned from the query. init_plugin_suite_live_search_result_item Modify each result item before it’s sent in the response. init_plugin_suite_live_search_results Filter the final array of results before being returned. init_plugin_suite_live_search_query_args Modify WP_Query arguments for different commands. init_plugin_suite_live_search_ai_weights Adjust AI scoring weights for related posts. (…and more in the full docs) REST API Endpoints Fully documented, lightweight, and API-first endpoints. Ideal for headless or decoupled builds. All endpoints are under namespace: initlise/v1 Full documentation (with examples & parameters): REST API Endpoints in Init Live Search Popular endpoints /search?term=example Standard search query (uses plugin settings like post types, search mode, fallback…). /id/{id} Fetch a post by ID (returns permalink). /recent Fetch the most recent posts. /tax?taxonomy=category&term=slug-or-id Fetch posts by taxonomy (category, tag, or custom). /related?title=page-title&exclude=ID Fetch posts related to the current page title. /product?... Fetch WooCommerce products with flexible query parameters. (…and more in the full docs) License This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later. You are free to use, modify, and distribute it under the same license.

WP Live Search (beta) is a search plugin for WordPress that returns results as the user types for what they are looking. It currently supports posts, pages, post types, including multiple post types, and design modes. This is very much a working prototype, so please log any issues you find on the Github repo below. https://github.com/bearded-avenger/wp-live-search Here’s some documentation. http://bearded-avenger.github.io/wp-live-search/ Add the shortcode [wp_live_search] to a page or something. There’s a few shortcode attributes that you can use, and are as follows: type=”” Your choices are posts or pages. Defaults to posts. You can also pass type,type to search multiple post types. For example type=”recipes,books” multi=”” By default this is turned off. Set this to true only if you’re using multiple post types above. placeholder=”” The text displayed in the input. Defaults to Search.... number=”” Total search result to return. Default is 20 excerpt=”true” Show the excerpt along with the title and featured image (if set) compact=”true” Makes a tiny WP Live Search for use in header widgets and such dropdown=”true” Display search results as a drop-down instead of pushing down the content around it results=”” The text displayed for the results. Defaults to entries found. results_style=”inside” Displays the “entries found” inside of the input area, useful for using in areas like header widgets where space is minimal. target=”” An optional target UL parent to send the search results to. Example target="#someotherdiv". Here are a couple examples: Default Usage: [wp_live_search] Use in Header Widget: [wp_live_search compact=”true” dropdown=”true” results=”found” results_style=”inside”] Search through multiple post types: [wp_live_search multi=”true” type=”posts,page”]