diff --git a/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsSearcher.java b/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsSearcher.java
index e07125c..1574d86 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsSearcher.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsSearcher.java
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ public class HitsSearcher  {
 	private File hitsDir;
     private IndexReader reader;
     private IndexSearcher searcher;
-    private int requests;
+    private int nrRequests;
     
     /**
      *  Opens the local index "indexName" at "path".
@@ -62,13 +62,13 @@ public HitsSearcher(String path, String indexName) throws IOException {
         open();
     }
     
-    public void open() throws IOException {
-        reader   = DirectoryReader.open(FSDirectory.open(hitsDir));
-        searcher = new IndexSearcher(reader);
+    private void open() throws IOException {
+        this.reader   = DirectoryReader.open(FSDirectory.open(this.hitsDir));
+        this.searcher = new IndexSearcher(this.reader);
         //searcher.setSimilarity(new BM25Similarity(1.2f, 0.75f)); // k1, b
         //searcher.setSimilarity(new LMDirichletSimilarity(200f)); // mu
         //searcher.setSimilarity(new LMJelinekMercerSimilarity(0.5f)); // lambda
-        requests = 0;
+        nrRequests = 0;
     }
     
     public void close() throws IOException {
@@ -107,7 +107,10 @@ public SearchResult search (String queryString, int hitsPerPage) throws IOExcept
             hit.put("score", doc.score);
             result.addHit(hit);
         }
-        if (requests++ > 10) close(); // close index every 10 searches, to see updates
+        if (nrRequests++ > 10) {
+        	nrRequests = 0;
+        	close(); // close index every 10 searches, to see updates
+        }
         return result;
     }
     
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsWriter.java b/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsWriter.java
index 2fe59da..d833e0b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/searsia/index/HitsWriter.java
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriterConfig;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriterConfig.OpenMode;
-import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.FSDirectory;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Version;
 
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@
  * 
  *  @author Djoerd Hiemstra and Dolf Trieschnigg
  */
-public class HitsWriter implements Runnable {
+public class HitsWriter {
 
     public static final Hit SEARSIA_HIT = 
       new Hit("Searsia", "Search for noobs", "http://searsia.org", "http://searsia.org/images/searsia.png");
@@ -51,23 +50,14 @@ public class HitsWriter implements Runnable {
 
     private ArrayBlockingQueue<SearchResult> queue;
     private int limit;
-    private int interval;
 
     private final Version     version = Version.LUCENE_4_10_4;
-    private Directory         indexDir;
-    private StandardAnalyzer  indexAnalyzer;
-    private IndexWriterConfig indexConfig;
     private IndexWriter       indexWriter;
-
+   
     public HitsWriter(String path, String indexName, ArrayBlockingQueue<SearchResult> queue) throws IOException {
-    	this(path, indexName, queue, 6);
-    }
-    
-    public HitsWriter(String path, String indexName, ArrayBlockingQueue<SearchResult> queue, int interval) throws IOException {
-    	this.initIndex(path, indexName);
+    	initIndex(path, indexName);
         this.queue    = queue;
         this.limit    = ((queue.remainingCapacity() + queue.size()) / 2) - 1;  // half of the capacity
-        this.interval = interval;
     }
 
     private void initIndex(String path, String indexName) throws IOException { 
@@ -79,11 +69,10 @@ private void initIndex(String path, String indexName) throws IOException {
         if (!hitsDir.exists()) {
             hitsDir.mkdir();
         }
-        this.indexDir = FSDirectory.open(hitsDir);
-        this.indexAnalyzer   = new StandardAnalyzer();
-        this.indexConfig     = new IndexWriterConfig(version, indexAnalyzer);
-        this.indexConfig.setOpenMode(OpenMode.CREATE_OR_APPEND);
-        this.indexWriter     = new IndexWriter(this.indexDir, this.indexConfig);
+        StandardAnalyzer indexAnalyzer   = new StandardAnalyzer();
+        IndexWriterConfig indexConfig     = new IndexWriterConfig(version, indexAnalyzer);
+        indexConfig.setOpenMode(OpenMode.CREATE_OR_APPEND);
+        this.indexWriter     = new IndexWriter(FSDirectory.open(hitsDir), indexConfig);
         addSearchResult(new SearchResult(SEARSIA_HIT));
         this.indexWriter.commit();
     }
@@ -119,16 +108,4 @@ public boolean check() throws IOException {
         return full;
     }
 
-    @Override  // so, it can be spawned as a thread, not used currently...
-    public void run() {
-        try {
-            while(true) {
-                check();
-                Thread.sleep(interval * 1000);
-            }
-        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-        }
-    }
-		
 }