Chapter 8. Search Systems
| What we’ll cover: |
| Determining whether your site needs a search system |
| The basic anatomy of a search system |
| What to make searchable |
| A basic understanding of retrieval algorithms |
| How to present retrieval results |
| Search interface design |
| Where to learn more |
Chapter 7 helped you create the best navigation system possible for your web site. This chapter describes another form of finding information: searching. Searching (and more broadly, information retrieval) is an expansive, challenging, and well-established field, and we can only scratch the surface here. We’ll limit our discussion to what makes up a search system, when to implement search systems, and some practical advice on how to design a search interface and display search results.
This chapter often uses examples of search systems from sites that allow you to search the entire Web in addition to site-specific search engines. Although these web-wide tools tend to index a very broad collection of content, it’s nonetheless extremely useful to study them. Of all search systems, none has undergone the testing, usage, and investment that web-wide search tools have, so why not benefit from their research? Many of these tools are available for use on local sites as well.
Does Your Site Need Search?
Before we delve into search systems, we need to make a point: think twice before you make your site searchable.
Your site should, of course, support the finding of its information. But as the preceding chapters demonstrate, ...
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