on January 18, 2004 - 4:32pm
If you're using a search solution on your website (Ask Jeeves, EasyAsk, Google, Inktomi, Mercado, Verity etc) or simply offer a search interface that users can find products, information or documents with-- you may be missing the main feature that will make it work (and give you the return on investment you want): Search Interface and Search Results Usability.
The search interface runs into these typical problems that most people don't consider when shopping for a search solution:
1) Search Interface: how the database works typically defines how the search interface will look (see the "Boolean logic" and "Natural Language" issues below)