This document discusses using search effectively in SharePoint. It provides an overview of SharePoint search and highlights the importance of planning search, managing metadata, and user training. Key points include allocating time and resources to configure search and crawl metadata, educating users on best practices for naming and tagging content, and leveraging features like refiners and promoted results. The presentation also provides resources for learning more about advanced search configuration and third-party tools.

1. Find It With SharePoint Search
Mike Brannon

2. Find It With SharePoint Search
• SharePoint Search – Do It Well – Plan It – Manage It
• System Admin/Installation: Could Be a Separate
Presentation!
• Project Management Considerations
• Key User Actions Needed For Maximum “Findability”
• Site Owner / Web Admin Practices To Enhance Search
• Questions
• Key Points to Take Home

3. Who Is This?? – The Company…
• Drywall, cement board – Construction materials maker
• North American presence – 34 locations, HQ in Charlotte NC
• 900 salaried employees – All SharePoint users – 1,000 hourly folks
• More than 10,000 partners/customers using some content too
• Microsoft client and Office commitment – also IBM z/OS and SAP
• SharePoint SQL and .NET Apps = “One Stop Shopping” for users
• Deeply committed to Customer Service / Satisfaction
• Share Information, Knowledge and LOTS of Status Communications,
Files and Reports (many generated)

4. Who Is This? The Guy Talking…
• Mike Brannon – NGC IT leadership team – Director of Infrastructure
& Security – 28 year employee at NGC – Utility infielder guy…
• Working on Process Change and Technical Tools for Sales, Service
• In 2000 - Started working with Tahoe – upgrading ever since…
• Helped start and continue to help Charlotte SP User’s Group
• Here with a friend from Mariner to share some NGC experience and
get your User Group going!

5. SharePoint at NGC – Brief Overview
• SharePoint is Core Server Tech
– Company Intranet AND Extranet
– Team Sites – Customer Svc.,
– Mfg, IT – PMO – “bandwagon”
– App Integration, Customization
• SP07 (upgrade!) – Exchange10 – Lync?
• Internally Hosted, Managed
– Three levels (2 in IT – some outside)
• Server / LB : pipes, power, plumbing
• System Admin – Provision, Configure
• Site Owners – CorpComm, CAS, IT

6. Power Tools!
• SharePoint 2010 -big step past 2007 – More Power & Complexity!
• SharePoint Search and Related Features Take Time / Effort
• Allocate Time, Resources To Learn Features, Build Into Design
• Leverage Metadata – and Content Types / Office Templates

9. Lack of Knowledge / Training

10. Human Resources with Skills & Focus

12. Presentation Chinese Menu
• What Would You Like to Order?? –
– Search and SP Project Planning and Analysis Tools
– Search Architecture and Sysadmin – Configuration and Support
– New Search Features – Overview of Functions
– Search Tips for Users / Content Contributors / Site Owners
– Search Customizations and Embedding
– Metadata and Search
• Add-Ons and Enhancements
– WAND / DataFacet
– ConceptClassifier

13. Project Planning – Plan for Search Success!!
• Select Search Options – Enterprise? FAST? And Architecture
• Plan/Build Search As Part of Your Farm, Services in SharePoint
• Collect SEARCH Requirements As Part Of Solution (IA/Project)
• Consider Content Crawl and Information Search Needs of Users
• Integrate Search With Metadata Mapping and Site UI Design
• Allow Time To Configure Crawled Metadata Into Managed Properties
• Plan For User Adoption / Education – Save It To Find It!
• Allow Time For Document Cleanup and “Garbage Collection”
Well – Your Deployment Sucks!

14. SharePoint IA – Metadata And Search Together
• User Needs Understood
• Metadata / Taxonomy
• Integrate Search Into IA

15. What business process does this map to?
What are the types of information users are looking for?
How often are they searching for it?
How should content be ranked?
What is the value this content provides?
How does this fit into the overall search vision?

16. More on Search Requirements…
• User focus! Specifics!
• Search is only as good
as the content / results
• ESP 2010 – Pg. 303-310
• PMS Pg. 38-58

17. Evolution of SEARCH – Maturity Model
• Sadalit Van
Buren
• Start with BASE
• Training &
Configuration
• Admin /
Metadata
• Customization

18. User Search Requirements
GOOD BAD
“Less time to find experts related to fiscal policy” “Instant access to all our content”
“Find latest policy updates from engineering” “Faster Search”
“Less than 5 actions to find content” “Better Search”
“Filter content by Author or Date” “Google like search”
SMART Requirements!! No Generalized Stuff Allowed
ASK THEM WHAT THEY NEED -- THEN DO THAT!!
MENU

19. New Features: Setup and Admin Focus
FAST Hybrid –
Adds Content SSA
• Architecture TWO Pipelines
– Partition Index
– Multi-Query
• SW Versions and
Features
• FAST Added on?

20. SharePoint Versions Search Comparison
Feature Search Search Server SharePoint FAST Search
Foundat Server 2010 2010 Server 2010 Server
ion 2010 Express
Basic site search Y Y Y Y Y
Best Bets Y Y Y Y
Visual Best Bets Y
Similar Results Y
Duplicate Results Y
Search Scopes Y Y Y Y
Search tied to user context Y
Crawled and Managed Y Y Y Y*
Properties
Query Federation Y Y Y Y
Query Suggestions Y Y Y Y
Sort Results on Managed Y
Properties or Rank Profiles
Relevancy Tuning by Y Y Y Y*
Document or Site
Promotions
Shallow Results Refinement Y Y Y Y
Deep Results Refinement Y
Document Preview Y
Windows 7 Federation Y Y Y Y
People Search Y Y
Social Search Y Y
Taxonomy Integration Y Y
Multi-Tenant Hosting Y Y
Rich Web Indexing Support Y

21. Resources!
• Excellent Book:
• Links in Notes
Menu

22. Key New 2010 Features / Improvements
• UI Accepts More Advanced Query Syntax and Offers Suggestions
– Search Query Operators Improved, Basic Wildcards/ Boolean Support
– Did You Mean and Suggestions While Typing
• Search Facets / Refinements (Left Side); Search Actions
• Federation Via Open Search and Desktop Integration / Connection
• Related Queries and People Matches (Right Side)
• Best Bets (Leverage Metadata; More options via FAST Upgrade)
• FAST Additions provide Previewing / Look Inside Functionality
• FAST Improves Refiners and Allows Lots of Customization

25. Newest Features – SP 2013 Menu
• FAST and SharePoint are now more completely MERGED
• Major Crawler Improvements
– PDF Integrated (no iFilter install); Indexing improvements!!
– Mailboxes on Exchange now indexed OOB
– Flexible Index and Search Federation options
• FAST ‘Deep Refinement’ and Managed Properties now far better
integrated into Search Admin
• Major Query Language Improvements (Search itself, not FAST)
• Big additions to Search UI and Integration (document searches)
– Floating Info / Pop-out Preview Pane (lots of AJAX)
• Promoted Results (Best bets), Personal preferences and Social
Integration (likes, tags – folksonomy and following)

26. BIG 3 Metadata –
HUGE Benefits, Low Cost!
• Title – Any Document, Web Page, etc.
– Descriptive, “Plain English” WITH_SPACES_!
• Content Author – WHO Prepared the Actual Document
(Not the Template! Or the Original Author – the Real One)
– Lots of Cross References (MySites / colleagues, etc.)
• File Name – Required – But USE ENGLISH!
• More on METADATA / Tagging Later
End Users PEOPLE / Training

27. Adding Names/Titles really improves search results
Filename only:
Use a Meaningful name! Avoid spaces
with “_” which is recognized separator!*
Filename and Title:
Menu
Applies to Documents, Lists, and ANY item you search for!!
End Users PEOPLE / Training
* Use DASH “-” not Underscore “_” in SharePoint Foundation!! 27

28. Tips For Better Searching…
For Searchers For Authors / Site Owners
• Don’t worry about Case / Caps • Follow basic Metadata rules
• Use “double quotes” for exact • Use MMS Metadata in site
phrases • Use tailored, sensible names for
• Use “*” for wildcard (ending) libraries and lists
• Use Title:Term or • Configure “Best Bets”
Filename:Term if you KNOW • Use Search Reporting
that Term is included
• OR expands Results and AND
narrows Results
Slide 28

30. Search Reporting AND Administration
• Site Owners, Web Developers AND Administrators
• “What are they doing?” “What’s working (or not)?”

32. Menu
• Where to find search
• What is being indexed
Basic • Searching for colleagues
• Using Scopes Mileage Varies With Licensing!
• Using Refiners Some IA / User Issues?
Intermediate • Sorting
• Search Syntax Query Power Users ONLY
• Desktop Federation “Do No Harm?”
Advanced • Alerts
End Users

33. Make Finding It SIMPLER – Embedded Search
• Create a Web Page With “Prebuilt Advanced Search” On It
Set the options – Page Displays Results!
OR Managed Metadata Navigation Options
• Place Search Web Parts on Page OR Visual Studio App!
• MANY Third Party Add Ons For This Too!
– (Entire Presentation on it’s own!)
Site Owner / Designers –
Build pages or sites!

34. Behind The Curtain – Embed Search/Redirect
Menu
• Use JavaScript to redirect to search results page.
• Load the 'k' query string parameter with the search term.
<script>
functionRedirectToSearchResultsPage() {
var searchVal = document.getElementById('SearchTerm').value;
window.location = "http://SharePointServerUrl/_layouts/osssearchresults.aspx?k=" + searchVal;
}
</script>
and the html to show the search input box and button:
<inputid="SearchTerm"/>
<inputtype="button"onclick="RedirectToSearchResultsPage()"value="Search"
• >
• This is rather simplistic. But you can see the idea.
Pg. 286

35. Metadata: Tag It So You Can Find It!
• Properly Filed Information Is Easier To Find!
• “Findability” Goes Up BUT “Putability” Goes Down!
(Apologies To Bill English / Mindsharp)
• Tag With Custom Column or Content Type
– Content Types Tied To Office Templates / SP Location Defaults
• BIG Improvements Via Managed Metadata Services
– Search Refiners on Left: Tailored By Site Owner
– Content Must Be Tagged By Users As They Save It
• MANY CODEPLEX AND THIRD PARTY OPTIONS!!

36. Metaphor for Metadata!!

37. Audience Participation Required!

38. How to discover GOOD Metadata?

39. Excel Template for Document Metadata

40. Search / Find It OUTSIDE SharePoint
• SharePoint CRAWLS and Indexes Content Outside SharePoint
• Web Sites
– Your own content – Not yet managed by SharePoint but ‘Findable’
– How about your customers? Partners? Competitors?
• Files, Folders and even Document Managers
• Lots of Details to Be Dealt With – Scopes / Security / iFilters
• Search can make it seem much more “integrated” to users
• Remember the “Saved Searches” and Prebuilt Web Parts!!
Metadata even MORE Important!!

41. External Tools and Add-Ons
• WAND provides “prebuilt” Taxonomy for SharePoint (some free)
• DataFacet “automatic tagging” solution
• ConceptClassifier analyzes contents and suggests/tags it
• DoD and many others adopting it – Test results!!
• SurfRay and Ontolica have been around for some time – Excellent
tools and some thought leadership / great ideas

42. Questions

43. Key Points to Take Home About SEARCH
• NOT A LIGHT SWITCH: Take Time To Configure and Manage Search
So It Works Well
• TRAINING REQUIRED: Teach Users Right Way To Name/Save Content
(Make it “findable” and make sure they are aware of its power!)
• WORK NEEDED: SP Admins / Site Owners Maintain Keywords, Best
Bets, Search UI
• Apply YOUR Culture / Content Knowledge – Time Well Spent!!
• Consider FAST, Enterprise Licensing, CODEPLEX, Third Party SW – for
Search Enhancements

44. Key Resources
• Amazon / Books
• General Resources (Books / Web Links)
– Search Specific Books (and Web Resources – search by author name)
Web Resources (Google Names – Links in Notes Pages)
Ruven Gotz Richard Harbridge Michael Pisarek

45. Mike Brannon
National Gypsum Company
mikeb@natgyp.com

46. Avoid Information Overload!
What About E-Discovery?
Could Be RISKY! Possible Wasted Time / Resources!!
Find It in the PILES of Documents? WHY SEARCH? BIG $$ AT RISK!
ANSWERS: Information Policy and Managed Metadata Services
Records Management / Records Center / Content Router