SharePoint 2013 however introduces the concept of Result Sources instead of scopes. As a sample I will limit results to show items from one particular site.
You can create Result Sources on three different levels: Search Service Application, Site collection and Site. This means you can define Result Sources in a very granular way, depending on where you want to use them. But bear in mind that having configurations spread all across your sites increases complexity of maintenance. In this sample I will create my Result Source at the SSA level.
Steps
Navigate to your SSA on Central Admin and click Result Sources in the left hand menu.
Next click “New Result Source”. This would be equal to a new search scope. Give the result source a name, leave the radio button on “Local SharePoint” as we’re searching local content. The limiting rule is then added in the Query Transform box. You can either launch the Query Builder or manually append your limiting query to the user query.
In this sample you will end up with the query:
{searchTerms} path:http://intranet.contoso.com/sales
{searchTerms} is a placeholder for the user query, and the last bit will make sure only items starting with http://intranet.contoso.com/sales are included.
Finally you will save the newly created Result Source.
Now that you have create the Result Source (or scope) you need to configure your search page to use it. Navigate to your search result page and enter edit mode. Next edit the Search Results Web Part and click the Change query button.
In the query builder dialog you can now choose your new result source in the top dropdown.
Click OK, save your page, wait a few seconds for the change to be picked up and results should be limited to http://intranet.contoso.com/sales.
Not too hard, just a bit different from what you were used to in SharePoint 2010.
