Interwoven TeamSite Evaluation
Funnelback Search Engine Evaluation
Introduction
Search engines are a valuable tool in information architecture as it provides users access to resources and content available in a website. Users can search for particular information available in a website often by searching in the search box. There are many search engines available such as the popular Google and Funnelback.
Funnelback keyword search
An example of a search engine embedded in a website is the Funnelback search engine used by The University of Sydney. The Funnelback search engine provides the ability to search the university’s webpages including restricting to specific searches such as a faculty website (The University of Sydney, 2011). The search engine appears constantly throughout the website of the university at the top right hand corner.
If a user is interested in locating information about if The University of Sydney offers a course on film studies. By conducting a search course handbook there were 51365 results displayed and it automatically searches all university webpages as shown in figure 1. The first result is for the index of online Faculty handbooks and then particular Faculties are listed further down the results page. From the results screen web pages appear to be sorted by relevance based on the search terms. In addition there are options to select the advanced search and there are suggestions of alternative ways to access handbooks by site as shown in the box on the top right of the results page.
figure 1
If the same results is searched with quotation marks, for example “course handbook”, the results are reduced until 195 results. The Faculty handbooks still appears at the top of the results list. However the results are more varied to include handbooks from student councils as well as specific faculties.
Alternatively if a user enters the terms film studies a large number of results appear. An excellent feature through from this search is the alternative terms by topic available in the Have you tried… box as shown in figure 2. There is the option to select a list of courses by clicking on Master of Film Studies or locate a Lecturer via the Lecturer of Film Studies option.
figure 2
Funnelback advanced search
When searching for content or information in The University of Sydney website there is also the option to select Advanced Search. This is via the search results screen and provides a number of options to refine search as shown in figure 3. This includes search by topic areas such as courses, library, policies and staff directory. There is also a range search fields such as exact phrase search and at least one word featured. In addition the results screen can be changed in the number of results and if they are sorted by relevancy, date, or URL. Furthermore there is the option to search within a site or domain.
figure 3
Conclusion
In conclusion there are a number of features of the Funnelback search engine which make it a reason why Information Architects may choose to include it as a search engine for their website. The ability to suggest alternative topics or areas to refine the results listed. The advanced search which provides the options to change the display of the results listed and to search by a particular site or domain. Furthermore the options of different keywords or exact phrase search.
References
The University of Sydney. (2011). University
search engine. Retrieved 22 May, 2011,
from
http://sydney.edu.au/web_print/web/products/university_search_engine.shtml