nchankov

This plugin adding autocomplete functionality to search input field. It is using core jQuery library as well as 
autocomplete jquery plugin from http://www.pengoworks.com/workshop/jquery/autocomplete.htm
This plugin requires zero configuration, but since version 1.2.0 there is admin screen where you can enable the extra ‘number of matches’ next to each option and other goodies. 
You just need to activate and it’s ready to be used in the blog. The plugin is tested with WordPress 2.6.5, but until there aren’t big core changes, it sould work for all future releases. I don’t have 
information if this plugin will work with older versions of WordPress, but for sure it is working with 2.6.x. The last version 1.2.0 is tested on WP 2.7.1.
New in 1.3.5: When it’s selected to display posts and/or pages and the autosubmit is ON, then when the user clicks on the selected row it will go directly to the post or page url. This way user are skipping one step. The change affect only pages and posts. Categories and tags behave as now.
New in 1.3.0: Added result type option in admin. From now on you can choose which type of results will be displayed.
New in 1.2: This version could display number of matches found in the blog.
New in 1.2.1: Small fix for table prefixes and adding autosubmit once the item from the list is selected.
I would appreciate if you write an review/post in your blog with a link to my page: <a href="http://nik.chankov.net" rel="nofollow ugc">nik.chankov.net</a>. 
Thanks!
<h3>Thanks to</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nik.chankov.net" rel="nofollow ugc">My Self 🙂</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jquery.com" rel="nofollow ugc">jquery.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pengoworks.com/workshop/jquery/autocomplete.htm" rel="nofollow ugc">jQuery Autocomplete Plugin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://csixty4.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Dave Ross</a> for the hint with name selector 🙂</li>
</ul>

Autocompleter

Adding autocomplete functionality to the blog search input field. The values provided are the tags and categories used in the blog.

jameelbokhari

Awesome Instant Search integrate Instant Search to ANY wordpress website using CSS seletors. If you are familiar with CSS already, you should have no problem setting this up. The less experienced can use <a href="http://www.jameelbokhari.com/awesome-instant-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">my full tutorial</a> to set up in 15-20 minutes.
After installing the plugin, go to Settings->Awesome Instant Search in your admin panel. On the first tab, General Settings, you can activate the plugin, but you should probably set it up first.
If you are working with the TwentyThirteen theme, the plugin should work out of the box. 
TwentyTwelve and TwentyTen can be applied instantly as well. Go to the plugin settings page described above, and under the General Settings use the dropdown next to Theme Quick Settings to select between twentythirteen, twentytwelve and twentyeleven. Again, if you are not using these themes you have to set the plugin up to fit your particular theme. Unfortunately there’s not a way (that I know of) that will get this plugin working out of the box!
For the quick tutorial, see below. For those of you unfamiliar with simple HTML and CSS concepts, <a href="http://www.jameelbokhari.com/awesome-instant-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">see my full tutorial</a>.
<h4>The Essentials</h4>
Essentially, you need to configure three settings.
<ul>
<li>Search Field Selector</li>
<li>Page Content Selector</li>
<li>Search result selector</li>
</ul>
If you know your <code>HTML</code> pretty well, here’s what to do: Assign Search Field Selector to the class or ID of your search field(s) in your website. The default <code>input[name="s"]</code> should work for any website.
Assign Page Content Selector to the ID of the element you want your search results to appear in. Remember to use a period (.) or hash sign (#) just like you would with a <code>CSS</code> selector. So for example <code>#content</code>. Just like with CSS you can be more specific when you need to, e.g., <code>#main #content .container</code> and so on. Keep in mind, this content will be hidden on the current page where the search is performed.
Next, in the same fashion, assign a selector for the search results. In about 99% of websites, this is going to be the same as the content selector with .hentry added in there. For example, if you assigned <code>#content</code> as your Page Content Selector, you would use <code>#content .hentry</code> as your Search Result Selector.
These are the three most important settings. After you get these, go ahead and test it out or play with the other settings.
<h4>Other Settings</h4>
Search URL is where the search results appear. This is your wordpress website’s domain with the letters <code>?=s</code> appended to it — e.g., http://www.example.com?=s 
This shouldn’t need to be changed but is there just in case you ever need to change it.
Hide These Elements If you want additional elements to be hidden when performing a search, use this option. These elements will be revealed again when the search is cleared. This value accepts comma separated <code>CSS</code> selectors, use it to hide comments, page navigation and other extraneous elements when searching.
Before Instant Results is <code>HTML</code> to appear before the Instant Search results. Use the tag %%SEARCH_TERM%% to print the search term, e.g., <code><h3>Search results for: "%%SEARCH_TERM%%"</h3></code> might show up as <code><h3>Search results for: "Contact Info"</h3></code> on your page.
Theme Quick Settings Quickly access default settings for twentyten, twentytwelve, and twentythirteen.
<h4>Translation</h4>
<ul>
<li>Español <a href="http://www.webhostinghub.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Maria Romos with Web Hosting Hub</a>.</li>
</ul>

Awesome Instant Search

Awesome Instant Search integrate Instant Search to ANY wordpress website.

Autocompleter vs Awesome Instant Search