San Francisco — Google has updated its “Google Code Search” site for finding publicly available source code, adding greater coverage and improvements in ranking and access.
Previously, the Code index only included code archives and repositories, but now it has been expanded to include individual code files and websites that have code samples as well. Google also adjusted the way results are ranked, putting class and function definitions closer to the top of search results.
“Today we made some updates to Code Search that will hopefully make it even easier to find the code you are looking for,” said Google software engineer Aleksander Fedorynski in a blog entry Thursday about the improvements.
Google Code Search now features indexing of individual files and code snippets from all over the web rather than just archives and repositories — such as .zip, .tar, or CVS and Subversion files — as was previously available.
To improve ranking, Google has amended Code Search so class and method definitions now appear closer to the top of search results for certain queries.
Google Code Search enables developers to locate source code on the Web, searching through billions of lines of code. The original edition was launched in October 2006, and has become quite popular amongst developers.
However, right after the launch, Google’s Code Search was criticized by some people as a potential resource for hackers looking to find bugs, password information, and proprietary code stored on websites.
In addition to the new features, Code Search is also now available localized in multiple countries, including Poland, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Russia, and Spain.