IWMW 2011 blog » #p4 http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011 Supporting UKOLN's IWMW 2011 event Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:43:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Plenary 4: Search Engines in the fight against Institutional Impecuniousness http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/08/02/plenary-4-search-engines-in-the-fight-against-institutional-impecuniousness/ http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/08/02/plenary-4-search-engines-in-the-fight-against-institutional-impecuniousness/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:18:12 +0000 kirsty-pitkin http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/?p=636 Continue reading →]]> In his plenary presentation, David Hawking, Chief Scientist at Funnelback, discussed the importance of search for HE websites and how to improve the search experience for visitors.

View this presentation on Slideshare.

“ Hawking: HEI are businesses. Everyone who runs a business needs to maintain and increase revenue, & increase productivity #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011

Hawking began his presentation by describing some of the ways a poor search interface can cause frustration, loss of productivity and event loss of revenue for businesses and institutions.

To illustrate how this can be avoided, he demonstrated some of the tools Funnelback have created to improve the search experience, including query completion, structured completions and regional adaptation…

“ Hawking: Demonstrating the importance of query completion and how structured completions can help guide visitors #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Structured completions do not require the suggestions to start with the same letter #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: There is an opportunity in running a search interface to help adapt your results to the visitor’s region #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011

Hawking went on to outline why search is important to specifically to universities, given the typical nature of their web presence…

“ Hawking: Search can help in image & marketing. Websites are vital to university marketing. Search is essential to web experience #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Search helps to integrate a disparate presence. Its not always preferable for research outputs to be in corporate style #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Search can help improve staff efficiency by helping them to locate policies, procedures and contacts more effectively #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
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David Hawking presenting at IWMW11

Hawking introduced us to the term “searchmaster” and advocated that any institutions that is serious about maximising the value of its web presence and improving user experience should have someone specifically responsible for their search interface.

“ Hawking: Every organisation has a webmaster. Do you have a search master? #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: You need to monitor how well the search is working on your site and tune it #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011

He suggested strategies and tools for searchmasters, including the new “Emmottiser” and “Accessoriser” tools.

“ Hawking: Tools for a search master: autocompletion, did you mean, query blending and ” best bets” linking to external services #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Test popular searches and business critical searches to find optimal settings #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Search effectiveness is a two-way street. Search and Publishing are in a symbiotic relationship #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Demonstrating the “Emmottiser” to explain why a certain page appeared at a certain ranking and help improve content #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011
“ Hawking: Demonstrating the “accessoriser” to automatically check a page for compliance with accessibility standards #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011

Hawking concluded by emphasising the importance of search for HE institutions:

“ Hawking: Effective search can help make a HE institutions more attractive, successful and productive #iwmw11 #p4
iwmwlive
July 26, 2011

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Reactions

Hawking’s presentation elicited the following reaction from the audience….

“ Targetted search e.g presenting different results dependent on visitor profile sounds interesting #iwmw11 #p4
alison_smyth
July 26, 2011
“ I have also spent time with Prof of Inconsequential Studies explaining why their site doesn’t score for terms they don’t use. #iwmw11 #p4
mikeywil
July 26, 2011
“ Need a search engine with integrated PayPal button allowing departments to pay me for listings. #iwmw11 #P4
MikeNolan
July 26, 2011
“ Good idea – appoint a Searchmaster for the institution – #iwmw11 #p4
mecb
July 26, 2011
“ People don’t use ‘wrong’ search terms, invariably uni websites use jargon and unhelpful language #iwmw11 #p4
millyshaw
July 26, 2011
You can view Hawking’s presentation in full on Vimeo

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