28-08-2012, 01:37 PM
Indexing and Search Engines for the Intranets
Indexing and Search.ppt (Size: 119.5 KB / Downloads: 58)
Introduction
A good site is one in which ‘content is king’
A lot of information makes a site huge, complex and navigation difficult
Search is the user's lifeline for mastering complex websites
Search feature is essential for users when they revisit a site, looking for specific info
Search is also users' escape hatch when they are stuck in navigation. When they can't find a reasonable place to go next, they often turn to the site's search function.
This is why site search is an important feature of any site of reasonably size
Types of Searching
A search can be of various types:
Internet Search: Search Engines like Yahoo, Infoseek crawl the web gathering web pages or info on web pages, index them and retrieve them when the specific term is found
Database search: Databases store their information neatly organized into fields. A search Interface is provided for this.
Search Servers
Some search engines run as separate servers. The form data is passed as part of the URL, just like a URL, but the search engine application runs as a separate HTTP server on a different machine. This reduces the load on the main web server.
Remote Searching
It is also possible to outsource search to a remote site search service. The indexer and search engine run on the remote server. using a web indexing robot, or spider, they follow links on the site and read the pages, then store every word in the index file on that server. When it comes time to search, the form on the site Web page send a message to the remote search engine which sends results back to the site.
Conclusion
A quality search process begins with quality metadata. It's that old principle: Garbage in, garbage out. Metadata is about giving a structure the the content. For example, if every document is assigned keywords or or classified by Geography, the reader will get a much more accurate return from his or her search.
Search engines are the mortar of the Intranet. As important as they are, their implementation must be given high priority with the necessary time allotted for research and development