Search Update Webmasters User Group by Kevin Paddock

Search Update Webmasters User Group by Kevin Paddock, DTS Search Administrator “search. Master@dts. ca. gov” State of California Webmasters User Group Wednesday, November 29, 2006 1

Search Update n n “Dessert First” Clarifications q q n n The new Google search URL Site search – free or not? Keymatch Project Update Other Cool Features 2

Questions? 3

Clarifications n Base URL for new search q n http: //search. ca. gov The form code published is for statewide search (CA search) only q q The Form code Code not intended for site search n But you are very clever and know how to use: q q q the query operator -- “site: ” the URL parameter -- “&sitesearch” the URL parameter – “&output=xml” 4

Search CA Form Code <form action="http: //search. ca. gov/search? " method="get"> <input name="site" value="ca_all" type="hidden" /> <input name="client" value="ca_x" type="hidden" /> <input name="output" value="xml_no_dtd" type="hidden" /> <input name="proxystylesheet" value="ca_x" type="hidden" /> <p> <label for="search" accesskey="s" class="hidden">Search: </label> <input name="q" size="25" maxlength="50" id="search" value="Search" onfocus="if(this. value=='Search')this. value=''" onblur="if(this. value=='')this. value='Search'" type="text" /> <input name="submit" title=“Submit search” alt="Go" type="submit" value="Go" /> </p> </form> 5

Clarifications, page 2 n the “site: ” query operator q . . . /search? q=services site: www. dts. ca. gov n works at www. google. com too q q our GSA behavior has been modified to. . . return either a confirmation message: n q “Yes! Your query produced 29100 results. Your site is indexed. ” or the standard error message: n q get site search for free from google. com? get site search for free from google. com/coop/cse/? Your search - site: www. finewines. ca. gov - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing "site: www. finewines. ca. gov". Why no results? n DTS cost recovery model currently in place dictates that we recover costs for services. To achieve that objective, the behavior of this operator was modified. 6

Clarifications, page 3 n the “&sitesearch” URL parameter q q . . . /search? q=services&sitesearch=“www. dts. ca. gov” returns results for indicated site only n Whoopee! Site search for free! However. . . q q q No department branding. No department control of results layout, colors, etc. No administrator console for customizations, accessing features, collections configurations, etc. No DTS support. not deterred by these drawbacks? Try. . . 7

Clarifications, page 4 n the “&output=xml” URL parameter q . . . /search? q=services&output=xml&sitesearch=w ww. dts. ca. gov n n n Whoopee! Site search for free! No UI. Returns an XML object of search results (think “web services”) for site indicated by the &sitesearch value Create your own layout using server-side scripting Static pages web site? Sorry. You don’t really care about GSA features accessed via the admin console. 8

Clarifications, page 5 n What will DTS do? q q q If you want supported site search now, DTS offers this service for less than the cost of purchasing a GSA or GSA-mini. e. Services is researching the situation: allow free site search to all departments or continue with the current pay-for-service model and alter the &sitesearch parameter too. DTS Site Search Service description: n n n Why does “&sitesearch” work but “&site” does not? q n See: http: //www. dts. ca. gov/custguide/DTS_Customer_Guide. htm Email search. Master@dts. ca. gov for PDF version. The “behavior modification” steps to prohibit free site search were not completed before DTS was instructed to “hold off” further modifications until a decision is made. Recommendation: don’t start using “&sitesearch” for production search. Wait till we have an decision. 9

Questions on Clarifications? 10

Keymatch Project q Keymatch Update: n n n q 117 entered so far (migrated & updated from K 2) Entire list is or will be viewable at www. eservices. ca. gov or email searchmaster@dts. ca. gov for a copy Should all State web site “machine” names (or aliases), entered as sole search term return the associated web site homepage as a Keymatch? n n abc www. abc. ca. gov dhs www. dhs. ca. gov dot www. dot. ca. gov caltrans www. dot. ca. gov 11

Keymatch, example 12

Keymatch List - example 13

Keymatch q q Should all State web site “machine” names (or aliases), entered as sole search term return the associated web site homepage as a Keymatch? If yours is not already listed and you want it added n make your request to. . . § n searchmaster@dts. ca. gov send requests in CSV file format. q see previous Search Update PPT for fields and descriptions 14

Other Cool Features n Related Queries q q q Interactively suggest alternative queries Search term (keyword or keyphrase) driven Associates alternative words or phrases with specified search terms. Related Queries appear as links at the top of the results list Clicking the link, submits a new query, like spell suggest n q “You could also try. . . ” Related Query request format: Search Terms ccc q Relates to conservation corps Email your requests as a list in CSV format: n ccc, conservation corp 15

Other Cool Features: Related Queries 16

Other Cool Features n Query Expansion q q Query expansion enables the search appliance to automatically add extra terms to a user's search query, in order to return additional relevant results. Two Types: n Stemming q n Automatic Synonyms q q searches for “engineer” will include “engineers” searches for “FAQ” will include “frequently asked questions” Both types support blacklists GSA includes a QE list of 20, 000 synonyms (mostly stems) Currently disabled due to a bug in the GSA. 17

Questions? 18

Thanks for Watching n Contact: q q q Kevin Paddock, Search Administrator DTS: 464 -4233 search. Master@dts. ca. gov 19