Moving On From a Mediocre Search Experience
Jinfo Blog

By Nigel Williams

Abstract

Nigel Williams of Interact Intranet looks at ineffective intranet search, some of the reasons behind this, and how to make the intranet an integral part of employee collaboration and communication from the start.

Item

The Problem with Search

Go to any communications or intranet conference, and you will often hear people complain of ineffective search. Technology is regularly cited as the problem - we've put all of our content in one place, so why isn't it being found?

Common reasons vary from tools which are difficult to use, poor or inaccurate content, to users requiring training to carry out an accurate search, and lack of knowledge of what is contained within the intranet.

The Technology

Of course having the right technology is vital to achieving effective search, but no matter how advanced the platform, accumulating content in one place won't necessarily make it discoverable, as many articles from the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible" highlight, sophisticated search engines such as Google are streets ahead of intranets in terms of the way they present and surface information.  

Common Errors

And once content is discovered, how can those findings be evolved from a problem to a solution? Is the user able to locate experts who can help them further?

Ineffective search is a common problem, and behind every common problem are common mistakes. In the Subscription Article "Seven Deadly Sins Stopping You Evolving Your Search Into Solve", I looked at some common errors in more detail, offering tips and advice on how to approach and fix them. 

The Importance of Planning

Our company works with organisations to help their employees collaborate, communicate and get work done more effectively and in the course of this work we see a variety of "sins" which range from hiding content away to not considering how content is accessed and lack of understanding around user behaviour.

98% of our customers say the number one buying criteria when choosing an intranet was ease-of-use and our white paper "Planning & Deploying a Successful Intranet" (PDF, registration required), provides more detail on areas from achieving ROI to determining intranet goals and making the intranet a success from the start.

This Blog Item is part of the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible".

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