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In the last few weeks Yahoo has launched Search Suggest and they're testing an enhanced version of this called Search Assist.

This is part of a growing trend of using AJAX in search. Yahoo's new tools are really useful - they help you complete your search query as you start typing. Search assist goes a step further by suggesting related terms using some old Alta Vista technology called Prisma. The search suggest technology has been done by others - but it's nice to see a major search engine offering this feature - I really like it.

Incidentally I think, as well as improving the user experience it could have a positive impact on Yahoo's revenues from paid search... The suggestions that are shown will be popular queries that they have seen before. This will mean that these will become more popular and there will be less people searching in the tail. The more popular search terms are monetized better than the tail terms because there is more competition for them. Yahoo could give more weight to search terms that have higher bids although this would have to be done carefully to ensure it didn't negatively impact the user experience.

When I tried this I noticed the search suggest tool is only on the home page, not on the search results page. It would be nice if it was there too.

As an aside I remember talking to Alta Vista about the Prisma technology years ago - before they were acquired by Yahoo. They were considered replacing the Prisma technology with our Related Search technology - but we never quite got a deal worked out.

Google posted a video showing how Carolina Rustica (one of our customers) are using Google Adwords and other products - like Google Checkout. Richard Sexton said they shot over 8 hours of footage to make this 2 1/2 minute clip.

It's a nice video - it puts a very human face onto ecommerce.

We're now powering the site search on Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land. Danny has requested a slightly different format to normal - with with the facets at the bottom. You can get to them by clicking the more options link beside the sorting options:

Most of our customers have the facets either at the top, or the left hand side. Those that want to conserve space will either use drop down for the facets or use java script to hide them (e.g. see Edwin Watts). Danny's approach is different but not one I would recommend to most of our customers - almost no one uses the facets at the bottom of the search engine land page.

Search Engine Land is a relatively new site. Danny started it when he left Search Engine Watch late last year. Because it is new it doesn't have that much content yet - but is getting bigger every day. It is interesting watching the top search terms. iCrossing has been popular - mainly because they were having a few issues with the company and Danny inadvertently gave people a forum to vent their frustrations in the Searcharazzi section. Disapointingly he shut it down - things were getting interesting.

Danny is the long time coordinator of the Search Engine Strategies show. Next week is the San Jose show. This is going to be the last one that Danny will be organizing. We will be exhibiting there and would love to see you if you're at the show.

I came across these ads the other day and thought I would share them. These ran back in 1999/2000 when Snap.com was promoting itself heavily on TV. They are focusing on the fact that Snap.com used GlobalBrain technology to power their search.

Why is this relevant to site search? SLI Systems acquired the GlobalBrain technology back in 2001 and it is used in our Learning Search product.

In the last couple of weeks we have announced a couple of new customers and SLI's sixth birthday. The two new customers are the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and A&S BMW Motorcycles.

The NEJM is unusual for us because most of our customers are retailers. Although they had some slightly different requirements - I think our experience at building search for retailers has helped build a significantly better search for the NEJM subscribers, some of whom are extremely particular about the way the search should work. I love it when we find people like this that really care about site search and we can rise to meet the challenge.

A&S BMW Motorcycles sell new and used BMW bikes and parts. They are the largest etail store of BMW accessories and parts online. Whether you're looking for handlebar risers or BMW boots you should be able to find them easier now.

And we announced our sixth birthday. It's amazing how quickly those six years have gone by. The company has been profitable for the last 4 years, we continue to grow at a very good rate and the future looks extremely bright.

Jakob Nielsen posted an interesting article today about the U.S. Census Bureau's website. The article was primarily about how fancy formatting doesn't necessarily help attract users eyes but it also contained some interesting information about site search.

The users were classified into 4 groups based on how their eyes scanned the page. The largest group (57%) was search dominant. This is yet more evidence highlighting the importance of site search.

Further down the article Jakob criticized the site search quoting one user saying "I know where I can probably find it faster: Google". I took a quick look at their site search - here are a couple of comments:

1. The default search only searches their FAQs. This is powered by RightNow, which is a good CRM tool but it doesn't have a very good search. More importantly a good best practice in site search is to make the default search across all of your content. (See Qantas as an example where we search all of their content including the FAQs hosted by RightNow.)
   
2. The RightNow search does have a link to their full site search which ironically enough is powered by Google. It doesn't have the features you'd expect in a site search such as facets, related searches, ordering options and it looks like a web search - complete with URLs being displayed with each search result, which in a site search is next to useless.
   

Marketing Sherpa released a Search Marketing report today. It contains some interesting information about search marketing but - also, a lot of information about internal search (aka site search).

Some points worth noting:

• Analyzing internal site search terms was one of the most popular keyword research techniques identified for search marketing.
  
• One survey greatly emphasised the importance of site search - over 50% of people who have decided what they are going to do when they visit a retailer site have decided to use the site search. We've seen this data before - about 50% of people are search focused - but it's great to have it reinforced. This is why over 95% of retail sites now have search boxes.
  
• Even though it is universally recognized that site search is extremely important and that people who use site search are more likely to buy, over half the retailers rated their site search as being poor! What's more retailers rated their site search higher than non-retailers - so the non retail sites have even worse site search.

This highlights the opportunity that site search vendors like SLI have - to help these sites improve their search.

The section on site search finishes with a summary of a case study and quotes our customer Shirely Tan, from American Bridal.

I recommend reading the report.

This week we're exhibiting at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas, booth #417. Please come and see us if you're at the show - we'd love to see you.

I also recommend stopping by the Exact Target Booth (612). They willbe presenting a case study detailing the integration of their service with both Omniture and our Learning Search technology, to produce personalized email marketing for Ulta Cosmetics.

I saw this blog post about a Web Analytics day in Brussels last week. It was interesting to see their take aways about site search, specifically:

• Visitors using site search are better customers.
  
• Analysts recommend improving the visibility of site search.
  
• One experiment found that by improving site search visibility 2% more visitors used site search and this resulted in a 1% increase in total revenue over a year.

Our customers also see this. For example, In the last 24 hours I have heard of a customer of ours who found that a large portion of their revenue was from customers who used their site search and so they've redesigned their site to make the site search more visible and are tracking the results.

The site search box on your site should be clear, large and above the fold so your visitors can find and use it easily. My preference is to not have any text in the box. See an earlier post: Which box is the search?.

Last week Internet Retailer covered a story about how our customer, Cable Organizer, improved their conversion rate with their new site search.

We've put a lot of work into their search and are elated they're seeing such positive results. Their search has multiple SKUs shown in each result, each with their own user rating. The search has separate tabs to search their information pages or to show the results in a grid format. They are collecting user feedback about the quality of the search. We offer various sort options, refinement options and related searches and are showing keyword specific banners. They're also using their site search to help with their SEO and to help improve the conversion rate of their landing pages.

The search engineer who did all this work, Hannah Ashworth had a chance to meet the guys from Cable Organizer at the shop.org show in Las Vegas earlier this month - which she really enjoyed. We find these shows are a great way to get a broader understanding of the whole industry - meeting the other vendors, listening to the presentations and of course meeting current and future customers.