Search Template Control

I created a custom theme for a corporate site I designed, and I’m having this issue with my Seach.php template file.

The layout includes a column on the right that displays a list of links to featured posts, called via a tag I called “featured”. This list appears on the home page and on all level-1 pages, and I want it to remain intact on the Search Results page as well.

Here’s the problem: Although the search is working like it should and is displaying the results inside the div I designated, it is also filtering out the featured links inside the right-hand column. So if the results do not include a word that is also present in the featured content, those links do not show up.

Basically, I need to “protect” that part of the template, which is its own php file, from the search query.

I am testing this locally, so the published site currently will not demonstrate the issue, but I am hoping there’s a code-smart individual out there who can examine this and help me find a solution.

I have this snippet in my header.php file, which activates the search field:

<div class="search">
        <?php $search_text = "Search"; ?>
<form method="get" id="searchform"
action="<?php bloginfo('home'); ?>/">
<input type="text" value="<?php echo $search_text; ?>"
name="s" id="s"
onblur="if (this.value == '')
{this.value = '<?php echo $search_text; ?>';}"
onfocus="if (this.value == '<?php echo $search_text; ?>')
{this.value = '';}" />
<input type="hidden" id="searchsubmit" />
</form>

And this is my search.php template:

<?php
/*
Template Name: search results
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div class="content_resize">
    <div class="mainbar">
      <div class="article">
      <h2>Search Results for <?php /* Search Count */ $allsearch = &new WP_Query("s=$s&showposts=-1"); $key = wp_specialchars($s, 1); $count = $allsearch->post_count; _e(''); _e('<span class="search-terms">'); echo $key; _e('</span>'); _e(' : '); echo $count . ' '; _e('suggestions'); wp_reset_query(); ?></h2>

      <?php $posts=query_posts($query_string . '&posts_per_page=-1'); ?>
	  <?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

   <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">

<div id="search_result">
<div class="feature"><?php the_title(); the_excerpt(); ?></div>
</div></a>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>
	 <?php endif; ?>
     </div></div>

<?php include ('featbar.php'); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Finally, my featbar.php template that lists the links & excerpts for posts with the tag “featured”:

<?php
/**
*featbar
**/
?>

      <div class="column_right">

      <?php query_posts('tag=featured'); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">

<div class="feature_bar">
<?php if (in_category('news-post')) { ?>
<?php the_post_thumbnail(medium); ?>
<div class="newsfeature"><feature_head><?php the_title(); ?></feature_head><div class="small_type"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></div>
<?php }
else { ?>
<div class="feature_thumb">
<?php the_post_thumbnail(thumbnail); ?></div>
<div class="feature"><feature_head><?php the_title(); ?></feature_head><div class="small_type"><?php the_excerpt(); }?>
</div></div></div></a>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div></div></div>
      <div class="clr"></div>

Anyone?