search function does NOT include similar characters like "á" and "a"
That's the technically correct result returned by the default database search. For a more advanced search you need to install an indexing serach engine, e.g. Lucene.
Thanks Subfader for you reply. Are you experienced in installing this extension because after reading the documentation it's not so easy. If so please contact me that we agree on a price :) Cheers Donxello 13:24, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
No I don't use it. You can hire someone on http://www.mwusers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?45-MediaWiki-Jobs
Yes, the default MW search engine is notoriously limited I'm afraid. Another oversight in search results occurs when a word is preceded by a quotation mark. For any extra functionality, you might be able to do two things:
- (1) Install a search engine such as Lucene or Sphinx, as Subfader already suggested, and an appropriate MW extension (for a list see my user page). Unfortunately, this may not be an option for the average user, because it requires shell access. If you're on a shared host, you're probably out of luck, but contacting your hosting company can do no harm.
- (2) use an external search engine such as Google. One serious downside to this strategy is that it may be slow on updates.
See also Search (though it rather shows how much things have remained still).
Of course, you can always redirect "Ernesto Fama" to "Ernesto Famá".
