Next week I’m starting a series on tidbits and tips for OmniFind Discovery Edition that I have found helpful. It’s not always easy to locate information you need when looking in the ODE InfoCenter. It’s often there but unless you know what you are looking for it takes some sleuthing. To make it easier I’ve [...]
Archive for July, 2008
ODE Chronicles: Quick Tips
Posted in OmniFind Discovery Edition on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Your site search might have a problem if your users have no clue why they got the results they did…
Posted in Site Search on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Symptom: Your users have no clue why certain items were returned
Ever get a search result set and not be sure if you’ve gotten what you were expecting? That can happen no matter how hard you work on your site’s data and metadata – but you can reduce the times it happens. You have to [...]
Your site search might have a problem if non-relevant results appear at the top…
Posted in Site Search on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Your search engine makes non-relevant results appear at the top of your list
I went to one site looking for screw drivers. Guess what came up? Knives! Now I have thought about using a knife on a screw before – but it’s not usually my first choice. (BTW, just in case you haven’t tried that, don’t. [...]
Your site search might have a problem if users have to guess …
Posted in Site Search on July 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Symptom: Your search engine makes the user guess at the right term — without feedback
Listen, I actually like playing the game 20 Questions. I find that I do that a lot with the Internet Search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc.) I really don’t mind. I think that’s because I realize that the universe of information [...]
Your site search might have a problem if your customer gets radically different results for very similar searches…
Posted in Site Search on July 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Symptom: Your search engine gives the user different results when they enter plural and singular forms of the same word
There’s nothing worse than making a customer guess when they don’t have to. The other day I was looking for some information on repairing a leaky faucet. I went to Google and entered “faucet.” A wonderful [...]
ODE Chronicles: User Interface Options for OmniFind and WebSphere Commerce
Posted in OmniFind Discovery Edition on July 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of the decisions that you need to make is how will you build your user interface for your search results page. You have two basic options: Use the Out-of-the-Box version or build your own.
Out-of-the-Box User Interface – ODE’s Layout Editor
In one situation, a client decided to enhance the out-of-the-box (OOTB) search functionality by using [...]
ODE Chronicles: A High Level View of the Application Flow
Posted in OmniFind Discovery Edition on July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When I look at an ODE application at a high level, I divide the process into three parts:
Pre-Query Execution
This is where you can set ODE parameters for a given search.
Some possible parameters include: search string entered by the user, store to be searched, price range and other search constraints.
Query Execution
This part is really easy. [...]
OmniFind Discovery Edition (ODE) Chronicles
Posted in OmniFind Discovery Edition on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I like OmniFind Discovery Edition. It has a lot to recommend it. I’m not going to go into all its benefits here but suffice it to say that I’m impressed by its versatility
Yes, there are other search engines that you may want to consider depending on your need and budget. Some options to consider [...]
Discovery Architecture: Getting Started With Site Search
Posted in Search & Discovery Strategy, Site Search, tagged LinkedIn, search, search & discovery on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A Quick Start Guide
1. Identify Your site’s conversion points
You need to think about conversion points in two different ways here.
First, think of the ultimate site conversion for a website – in context of your company’s overall objectives.
Second, think of intermediate conversions needed to get people to your ulimate site conversion.
Third, think about how these intermediate [...]
Your site search might have a problem if your customer service reps tell you…
Posted in Site Search, tagged search on July 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Symptom: Your Customer Service Reps tell you that people keep asking if you have a certain product…and you do!
By now you know that I am no handy man (btw, I did call the plumber to take care of the leaky faucet.) But my brother… now he IS a handyman. He knows his tools, his supplies… [...]
