The University of Sunderlandand exalead

changing search

Dean Hale. Web Development Manager

Thursday, 5 November 2009

I do like google

“We considered other search technologies but nothing met our needs as well as the Google Search Appliance. Previously, we had issues with installation and set up, day-to-day operation and reporting. With the Google Search Appliance all of these problems went away and it took longer to unpack the machine than to set it up!”

coolest kid on the block

Google appliance customer since 2005Thursday, 5 November 2009

We could not get google to search our databases easily and when we did we struggled to display the results correctly

We could not get google to search secure content

We have little meta-data and enforcing this is proving difficult

You cannot easily customise the results returned using google - visual display / ranking

why we changed

Around 40% of our visitors enter a search term at some point on our site - we want to search over a number of solutions to meet their need.

Thursday, 5 November 2009

search term - ‘campus maps’

results

search term - ‘campus maps’Thursday, 5 November 2009

search term - ‘campus maps’

results

search term - ‘campus maps’Thursday, 5 November 2009

search term - ‘campus maps’

results

search term - ‘campus maps’Thursday, 5 November 2009

results - courses

Thursday, 5 November 2009

results - courses

Thursday, 5 November 2009

results - courses

Thursday, 5 November 2009

results - news

Thursday, 5 November 2009

How

courses

<div id="exaleadwww">

<snip>

<div class="courseInfo code"><strong>UCAS Code:</strong> B230</div><div class="courseInfo classification"><strong>Classification:</strong> Masters</div><div class="courseInfo mode"><strong>Course Mode:</strong> Full time</div><div class="courseInfo duration"><strong>Course Duration:</strong> 4 Years</div><div class="courseInfo location"><strong>Course Location:</strong> Science Complex, City Campus</div><div class="courseInfo area"><strong>Subject Area:</strong> Pharmacy, Chemistry &amp; Biomedical Sciences</div>

<snip>

</div>

news

<div id="exaleadwww"><h2>Swine Flu latest</h2><img class="news" src="http://cmsasset.sunderland.ac.uk/welcome/news/mac/swine_flu.JPG" alt="" width="200" height="200" /><p><strong>Released: Friday 23rd October 2009 at 00:00</strong></p>

<snip>

</div>

use css to tag content

Thursday, 5 November 2009

How

o:3:courseInfo mode [0,1]:mainCourseModeoptional:mixture of id’s and classes:css tag:location:unique name

Thursday, 5 November 2009

other uses

PHPThursday, 5 November 2009

other uses

PHPThursday, 5 November 2009

other uses

PHPThursday, 5 November 2009