#21358
Adventures in Low Fidelity: Designing Search for Egreetings
One of the dirty little secrets about being an information architect is that most of us only bat .500 at best. We labor and agonize over making recommendations and designing information architectures that are supposed to change the world, but many of our designs never see the light of day. Rather than moan about why my designs were not implemented, I want to share my story.
Farnum, Chris. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Search
#23041
For an information architect with library roots, what's next is obvious: ambient findability. I want to be able to find anything, anywhere, anytime.
Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (2002). Articles>Information Design>Search
#25937
Are You Using the Right Search Engine?
What this all means is that when web users can't find what they want in Google, they should not automatically assume that they're at fault. At present, Google is heavily weighted.
Bennaco (2004). Articles>Information Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#23074
Clarifying Search: A User-Interface Framework for Text Searches
Current user interfaces for textual database searching leave much to be desired: individually, they are often confusing, and as a group, they are seriously inconsistent. We propose a four- phase framework for user-interface design: the framework provides common structure and terminology for searching while preserving the distinct features of individual collections and search mechanisms. Users will benefit from faster learning, increased comprehension, and better control, leading to more effective searches and higher satisfaction.
Byrd, Don, W. Bruce Croft and Ben Schneiderman. D-Lib Magazine (1997). Design>Information Design>User Interface>Search
#29493
Effective Search Engine Submission Strategies
Now that you've got a website it's time to start thinking about promoting it. Search engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic to your website.
stevenforsyth.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#23888
Faceted Metadata for Image Search and Browsing
The authors present a new method of image searching based on conceptual descriptors. This method differs from the traditional methods of image searching that are based on keywords and visual similarity.
Hearst, Marti, Kevin Li, Kirsten Swearingen and Ka-Ping Yee. University of California Berkeley (2003). Design>Information Design>Search>Metadata
#23034
Findability refers to the quality of being locatable or navigable. At the item level, we can evaluate to what degree a particular object is easy to discover or locate. At the system level, we can analyze how well a physical or digital environment supports navigation and retrieval. This website is a selective, seriously incomplete, and perpetually evolving collection of links to people, software, organizations, and content related to findability.
#26795
In a world awash with information, finding what you really want can be difficult. Any database or web index can deliver a set of results. But it's particularly difficult to highlight the most relevant 'stuff.' Web search engines such as Google and Yahoo try their best to recommend some items over others, and now libraries are trying to do this for their holdings.
Tennant, Roy. Library Journal (2005). Articles>Information Design>Search
#29491
The Google Sandbox and How To Get Out
The Google Sandbox is a filter that was put in place in about March of 2004. New websites with new domain names can take 6 to 12 months to get decent rankings on Google. Some are reporting stays of up to 18 months. The Sandbox seems to affect nearly all new websites placing them on probation. Similarly, websites that have made comprehensive redesigns have been caught up in this Sandbox. Does this Sandbox Really Exist, or is it just part of the Google algorithm? This has been a big controversy with many different opinions. Most now believe that this is an algorithm. In either case, the Sandbox functions to keep new sites from shooting to the top of Google in just a few weeks and overtaking quality sites that have been around for many years. This appears to be an initiation period for new websites.
Williams, Doug. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#29489
Google Search Engine Optimisation and their 80/20 Rule
Google's increasing use of anti-spam features has meant that optimising websites for Google has become much harder and it's now not just a case of opening your websites source files in notepad, adding some keywords into your various HTML tags, uploading your files and waiting for the results. In fact in my opinion and I'm sure others will agree with me, this type of optimisation, commonly referred to as onpage optimisation will only ever be 20% effective at achieving rankings for any keywords which are even mildly competitive. Those of us who aced maths in school will know this leaves us with 80% unaccounted for.
Callan, David. stevenforsyth.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#23035
The High Cost of Not Finding Information 
In an increasingly information-based world, we turn out complex products that are less tangible than they are knowledge-based. The very complexity of the decisions we make and the products we manufacture makes it impossible to check, test and retest them adequately enough to be sure that they will function properly in any circumstance. Information disasters are a growing threat, and one that few businesses can ignore.
Feldman, Susan. KMworld (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Search
#25664
An Information Retrieval Using Conceptual Index Term For Technical Paper on Digital Library
This paper presents a method for semantic Information Retrieval(IR) which is implemented on Digital Library. It is well known that Digital Library should have the IR system that user may automatically access every kind of media from anywhere. However, no improvement is made for the retrieval errors based on individual differences of user's request. This is one of the significant problem for the searching efficiency of IR. Our approach does not use the request itself but the concepts. This makes it possible to retrieve semantic information not merely to compare with the word strings of the request.
Horii, Chinatsu, Masakazu Imai and Kunihiro Chihara. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Information Design>Semantic>Search
#25357
Judgment Day: Google Strikes Back
Google has never cared for search engine optimization and has always looked at it as an attempt to taint what they hold as precious. The question that must be asked is, 'Why?' Why does Google see search engine optimization as the enemy and are they justified in their thinking?
Angeletti, Mark. Search-This (2003). Articles>Information Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#23037
Perspectives on Information Retrieval 
This report provides a new look at the business and technology dynamics driving the move to a new generation of search in the enterprise.
Delphi Group (2002). Articles>Information Design>Search
#22496
Query By Attention: Visually Searchable Information Maps
This paper explores how the design of information spaces might be grounded in knowledge of human visual processing, notably what kinds of visual selection are most efficient. Information maps spatially array graphical symbols representing items of information and their attributes. Ideally, their users should be able to do query by attention: answer questions about the information quickly by controlling visual attention (i.e., through spatial selection and visual search), instead of manipulating an interface. I propose a preliminary method for designing visually searchable maps based on experimental results about what kinds of visual search are easy. The hope is that the resulting maps will better employ the perceptual capabilities of their viewers when they search. An example information map of recent movies illustrates the approach.
Foltz, Mark and Randall Davis. MIT (2001). Design>Information Design>Search>Visual Rhetoric
#25338
Search Engine Decoder: Relationship Chart
An interactive multimedia 'map' about the interconnections between various Internet search engines.
Search-This (2004). Resources>Web Design>Information Design>Search
#29490
Search Engine Optimization: Getting Started
Explain some of the first steps to get your website not only optimized for the search engines, but to push your website up in the rankings war.
Garite, Joe. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#29492
Outbound links' anchor text affects a page's search engine ranking in much the same way that inbound links' anchor text affects search engine ranking.
Walsh, Joel. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#23250
Site Maps and Hypertext Links: "Food" for Search Engine Robots
Site maps and links are so important for search engine optimisation - find out why.
Webcredible (2003). Design>Information Design>Sitemaps>Search Engine Optimization
#27059
SQL Cookbook: Advanced Searching
Some types of searching operations stand apart from others in that they represent a different way of thinking about searching. Perhaps you're displaying a result set one page at a time. Half of that problem is to identify (search for) the entire set of records that you want to display. The other half of that problem is to repeatedly search for the next page to display as a user cycles through the records on a display. Your first thought may not be to think of pagination as a searching problem, but it can be thought of that way, and it can be solved that way; that is the type of searching solution this chapter is all about.
Molinaro, Anthony. O'Reilly and Associates (2001). Articles>Information Design>Databases>Search
#29676
Strategies for Improving Enterprise Search
Acquiring and installing a search engine is just the beginning of creating an effective enterprise search system. John Ferrara walks us through strategies for addressing critical aspects of the user experience often overlooked or ignored.
Ferrara, John. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#23255
#23981
Using Categories to Improve Search
The authors explore ways in which categories can be leveraged to improve search. An interface named SWISH is presented, in which search results are automatically categorized, and pages in the same category are grouped together.
Cutrell, Edward and Susan Dumais. Earthlink (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Search
#25932
As an information source, the Internet is amazing. No matter what the topic, chances are you can find out all about it on the 'net. However, as the information haystack gets bigger, finding that crucial needle of data can become a frustrating challenge. Here are some simple tips for finding what you want.
Bennaco (2005). Articles>Information Design>Search
#32303
The Information User: Past, Present and Future 
The emergence of research on various aspects of `information behaviour' is explored and its growth as a subject of academic research is documented. The origin of the field as a potential aid to the development of library and information services is noted, as is the transition from this status to that of a subject for research at PhD level and beyond. The development of the field has thus led to a division between the needs of academia for theoretically grounded work, and the needs of the field of practice for guidance for service development. There is, today, a disconnection between research and practice, to a significant extent: early research was undertaken by practitioners but today academic research dominates the scene. Suggestions are made as to how this disconnection can be repaired.
Wilson, Tom. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>User Centered Design>Information Design>Search
