Search Pattern Adoption: are we making an impact?

Lyle Kantrovich IA Summit 2014 San Diego

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Background

• About me…

• Why would I do this?

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Summary

• Basic search patterns for on-site search

• Research on search pattern usage on large corporate sites

– Fortune 50

– Fortune 451-500

• Why aren’t more sites using patterns?

• What does this say about our effectiveness?

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Nine Search Patterns

• Global search box in header • Allow query revision on results page • Show the number of results • Highlight keywords in result titles • Highlight keywords in result snippets • Provide search tips when zero results • Autosuggest • “Best bets” / recommended results • Faceted or categorized results

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Global search box in header

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

11% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Allow query revision on results page

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

28% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Show the number of results

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

26% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Highlight keywords in result titles

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

54% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Highlight keywords in result snippets

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

33% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Provide search tips when zero results

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

30% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Autosuggest

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

65% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

“Best bets” / recommended results

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

70% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Faceted or categorized results

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

59% of F50 fail to do this.

VIVID MOJO

Berkshire Hathaway – circa 1998

No Search

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Berkshire Hathaway (F#5) – today

No Search

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Berkshire Hathaway – News Releases

No Search

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14

“Microcontent”

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Providing a Global Search Capability

• Some companies don’t provide on-site search

– Berkshire Hathaway (#5)

– Express Scripts (#24)

• Some sites have multiple search silos or only provide search for limited content

– Amazon (#49)

– Facebook (#482)

– Walgreens (#37)

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Usage Data

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Usage Data - Adjusted

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

“Best Practice” Adoption

• Of the 45 sites with search in the F50, on average, they use five of the nine search patterns

• Within the F451-500, sites only used 4 patterns on average

• Quality of results tended to be lower on sites that followed fewer of these patterns

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Reasons for status quo?

• Search is HARD… • Search is BORING…(?) • Pattern relevance is contextual… • IT owns the search tools • No one is minding search, analytics, etc. • Vendor search tools are poor • Google is everyone’s default anyway • Agencies are gone when search gets implemented • Bad content / metadata • More???

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Your mission, should you choose…

• Search is a critical part of the web experience…right?

• IA’s need to push for better search.

• IA’s need to push for better tools/products from search vendors.

• IA’s need to move beyond design to search analytics and search quality metrics

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

Consider This

Fortune 50 revenue in 2013: $5.7 Trillion USD

If each Fortune 50 company spent $1 million annually on search it would hardly put dent in profits. (2013 profits were $400 Billion.)

We need to stop selling “cars” and “new paint jobs” and start helping them be better drivers.

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14 VIVID MOJO

How do we measure the impact of our industry? Do we need metrics for our tribe’s effectiveness?

@LKANTROV | #searchia #ias14