The Electoral Commission And Funnelback Search

The Electoral Commission search project March 2010

Our organisation
The Commission is an independent body set up by Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the democratic process.
We:
register political parties
make sure people understand and follow the rules on party and election finance
publish details of where parties and candidates get money from and how they spend it
set the standards for running elections and report on how well this is done
make sure people understand it is important to register to vote, and know how to vote

The problem

Our site has:
Lots of information
Primary materials
Similar sounding information
A number of different visitors all using different terminology to find the same things or the same terminology to find different things

The weight of expectation Nearly half (47%) of internet users spend over 30% of their time online searching. (Harvest Digital) ‘ Users accustomed to consumer Web search are…unhappy with the meagre, Web-style keyword search tools. In a business environment, sifting through an endless, flat list of links to find the information you need is unacceptable’ (Exalead)

The solution

What we needed
Good initial results
Different ways of filtering down
Search term suggestions
Custom features
Result manipulation
Flexibility
Speed
Value for money

Good initial results Different ways of filtering content Search term suggestions Custom features Result manipulation Flexibility Speed Value for money
The search Algorithm considers:
The rarity of the query term within the content
Query density (no. query terms vs. non-query terms in the content)
Where the query term appears (e.g. in link text or title)
Plus many other factors!

Good initial results Different ways of filtering content Search term suggestions Custom features Result manipulation Flexibility Speed Value for money Users rate results Featured items – linked to search terms Most popular items Search terms highlighted File type icons Section or Type shown

Admin console
Help desk
Taken indexing off main servers

Success!
Month Queries No. clicks % clicks Featured page clicks
on results on results
Dec 09 24,010 5354 22% 54
Jan 10 35,814 9843 28% 133
Feb 10 34,241 17,700 52% 148

http://www.squiz.co.uk	25
http://www.funnelback.com	9
http://www.tumblr.com	1
http://lastthursdayandfriends.tumblr.com	1

The Electoral Commission And Funnelback Search

by Squiz on Apr 01, 2010

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The Electoral Commission And Funnelback Search — Presentation Transcript