How are people using your site search

[Richard Wiggins]

In the age of Google (and to a lesser extent AskJeeves and LivePerson), with a mass audience of customers coming to your Web site, this sort of behavior is predictable.  People see a search box, they type into it what they want to know, either as search terms or in the form of a question.  They don't distinguish between "the site" and "the library".  They think they've landed at a virtual library.  Why doesn't that search box give 'em the answer they seek?

So it seems we either somehow train the user what to type into which search box, or we make a very smart search box.

Train the user:

One approach might be to offer a set of radio buttons with a single search box, so the user has to pick which kind of search is being done -- Search this site, search for a book by title, etc.  You only do a local site search if you pick the button that says that's what you want to do, and you see the other choices to distinguish among the options.

Smarter search box:

I think the Internet Movie Database is worth emulating here.  I just tried a search for "John Malkovich" and got a nice integrated hit list broken down by movie titles, names of actors, etc.

I refined my search by clicking the drop down to look for "People" instead of "All" and got a direct hit for the one actor.  IMDB offers more elaborate structured searches for when the more generic ones don't deliver.

Imagine if the one search box at the library could be that smart.  You type in Shakespeare and you get back from a federated search:

 -- Library Events: lecture in the library next week by a Shakespeare expert

 -- Book Club: East Overshoe book club is reading Shakespeare's sonnets

 -- Community Events: "Love's Labour's Lost" at East Overshoe Civic Theatre

 -- Articles: 200 recent articles on Shakespeare available online
              2000 articles on Shakespeare in our magazine collection

 -- Books:  10,000 books on subject of Shakespeare
               200 books with author of Shakespeare

The smarter search box is obviously a lot harder to build than cues for training the user, but wouldn't it be nicer?  

/rich






On Mon, 18 February 2002, "Rachel Singer Gordon" wrote:

> 
> We have the same issues -- I did originally have the search box
> itself on the front page of our site, with a note that said "Search
> This Site:" and found that people were using it pretty much ONLY to
> search for information as if it were searching the Internet (or,
> oddly enough, typing in URLs). Some time ago I replaced the search
> box on the front page with a link to 'Search Our Site,' that takes
> viewers to a page that briefly explains search and provides the
> search box. This has cut down on people using it to search the
> Internet, but also has cut down tremendously on people using search
> at all.
> 
> - Rachel
> 
> ---- Original Message ----
> From: carver.50 at osu.edu
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org, 
> Subject: RE: [WEB4LIB] How are people using your "Site Search"?
> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 11:51:49 -0800 (PST)
> 
> >Is anyone else is keeping a log of what search terms people are 
> >entering in 
> >your "Site Search". I recall a "how to" thread a few weeks back, but 
> >I 
> >don't see any discussion on what visitors are using our site-only 
> >search 
> >engine for, or how they are misusing it.
> >
> >I've been keeping track here at OSU for a few months now, and there 
> >is no 
> >doubt in my mind people are NOT differentiating between a site 
> >search and a 
> >search of our OPAC, or a database search.
> >People see "search", and think they can just search for anything. 
> >This 
> >makes sense from a users point of view, why would someone be able to 
> >search 
> >the library site and not be able to turn up some books? It may seem 
> >silly 
> >to us, but this is how people are looking at our sites, they see the 
> >library, and they want to search for a book.
> >
> >I changed our search screen to state explicitly that our site search 
> >is not 
> >looking for books, etc... about a month ago, and it doesn't seem to 
> >have 
> >helped.
> >
> >So, are you watching the logs, what have you seen, and have you 
> >found a way 
> >to help users get pointed  in the right direction?
> >
> >Some recent examples:
> >  how many libraries are there at OSU
> >  the history of the columbiana county courthouse in Lisbon Ohio
> >  Am searching for Howard Johnson who migrated to the united states 
> >in 1995-96
> >Books in Spanish Christian Cultural Anthropology
> >McCarthyism during Cold War dealing with actors and actresses
> >
> >------------------------------------------
> >Blake Carver
> >Web Librarian
> >The Ohio State University Libraries
> >carver.50 at osu.edu
> >See Also:
> >   http://www.lisnews.com
> >
> >
> >
> ---
> Rachel Singer Gordon / rsinger at linc.lib.il.us
> http://www.franklinparklibrary.org
> http://www.lisjobs.com
> ---

Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com       www.richardwiggins.com