| More information you
put into your website - more valuable it becomes - and gets more
difficult to navigate ! No matter how well you design your site
navigation, visitors will need ingenious ways to find what they
are looking for. Site search engines provide a powerful and familiar
means to provide that access. Visitors can just type the words and
press the Search button in a form, and get a list of all the documents
that match those words on your site.
We discussed various issues involved, specially who
needs search engines and why in previous issue. In this article,
we discuss the tasks involved if your website falls into the category
that needs search engine.
There are essentially two ways to go about
-
buy a search engine software, install it and develop
an in-house program for maintenance.
-
Outsource the requirement through hosted search
engine
The first option offers more freedom but costs a lot
and requires considerable in-house technical expertise.
The second option is less expensive and very easy to
implement (anyone with practical knowledge of HTML can implement
it - does not require technical skill). However, there are a few
issues that need attention before opting for such a service.
Your own Search Engine (Local Software)
For an example of such software, consider the search
engine at The Great Indian Bazaar (the top right corner of www.infobanc.com)
It has separate provisions for searching buyers, sellers, news items
etc. So, if you are searching for Buyers, the search engine will
only display BUYERS - no unwanted junk. You are unlikely to get
such customization in general purpose search engines.
Though this option gives you maximum choice it also
requires considerable understanding of how search engines work and
technical skill to implement. Besides, it costs more and needs regular
maintenance. This place is too short to discuss the issues involved,
we shall instead concentrate on second option.
Outsourced or Remotely Hosted Search Engine
The World Wide Web is a marvelous place - you will
find helping hands almost everywhere. For example, you can outsource
your search to a remote site search service and let someone else
worry about the gory details. The indexer and search engine run
on the remote server: they will use a web indexing robot, or spider,
to follow links on your site and read the pages, then store every
word in the index file on that server (without taking a single Kilobyte
from your precious server space).
During search, the visitor fills up a form on your
local Web page (just like any search engine) which in turn sends
the information to the remote search engine. The remote search engine
takes the search terms, matches the words in the index, sorts them
according to relevance, and creates an HTML page with the results.
When a searcher clicks on the result link, they will see the page
from your site, just as though the search came from there. It's
easy and painless for practically everyone.
Advantages of Remotely Hosted Search Engine
-
No need for server access
Practically any website can use this service - even if your
site is on a shared-host and you have FTP access only.
-
No need for technical skill
You never need to install any software or pay someone else to
do so
-
Easy administration
The remote search host will take care of daily maintenance.
You simply add/update pages - the remote server will automatically
index all new/updated pages and keep the index up-to-date.
-
No load on your server resources
Search engines require significant resources, such as CPU time
during searching and indexing, disk space etc. Outsourcing to
a remote server moves the load away from you. In addition, these
servers are usually in data centers with excellent connectivity
and administration
-
Minimal initial investment
Instead of paying for a search engine up front, you can pay
a small monthly fee. Some services are free, showing advertising
with the search results.
-
Easy to switch
If you aren't happy with your search service, it's easy to switch
to another.
The Flip Side - Disadvantages
Like all good things in life - this service also comes
with riders you need to be aware of.
-
Unwanted Advertising or pay every month You must
pay every month or allow your searchers to see other people's
advertising
-
Less control over indexing
If your data changes frequently (hourly or daily), most of these
services will not index that often.
-
Dependent on outside service
If the service's search engine gets busy, it may delay responses
for your site, and there's not much you can do.
-
Less capacity
The remote search services have a page limit, although some
will index hundreds of thousands of pages.
-
Less freedom of choice
Each search engine has its own special features, but you have
more choices if you plan to run your own engine. For example,
some have problems indexing password-protected areas, or word
processing file formats, adding a thesaurus or a spellchecker,
etc.
-
Multi-site indexing
Most remote services allow you to index just the sites you control
(though there are exceptions). With a local search engine, you
can index other sites and create a public search portal.
How to start
Whether you opt for local search engine or remotely
hosted one - you must first complete few housekeeping tasks to prepare
your website. We shall discuss the tasks in next issue as also a
review of available Internet resources.
Related Links:
Source: FAIDA
- Newsletter on Business Opportunties from India and Abroad
Vol: 3, Issue 22
September 19' 2002
Author :
Dr. Amit K. Chatterjee
(Amit worked in blue-chip Indian and MNCs for 15 years in various
capacities like Research and Information Analysis, Market Development,
MIS, R&D Information Systems etc. before starting his e-commerce
venture in 1997. The views expressed in this columns are of
his own. He may be reached at amit@infobanc.com
) |
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