Director's Blog

A couple of months ago, I told you that our new search engine was only in its first phase. Phase II will become available later this month. This will address several of the issues we've been hearing about.

The first enhancement is advanced content spotlighting and comes in four parts. First, you can now request a keyword, phrase or set of keywords and specify a web resource for them to be linked to. When someone queries on those terms, a link to your page and a brief description will be displayed at the top of the results page above the rest of the query results.

In addition to featuring a link at the top of the result set, a set of keywords can trigger the display of a promotional image in the left hand column or featured text in the right hand column. You define and provide the information that will be displayed whether it be an image that links through to a web page or the title, description and text of a snippet you wish to promote.

Finally, content spotlighting will now include "related news" items in the left hand column. For example, if you search on "MRI" both clinical trials such as "MRI Evaluation of Esophageal Cancers (MRI-EC)" and relevant news items like "OHSU Receives Two-Of-A-kind MRI Magnet" are displayed.

The second big step forward for search at OHSU is the availability of subsite search.. Endeca can now be used to search any collection of directories or websites you specify. The search box will look and function exactly the same as the main search box, however the search results will only include pages and resources found within the subsite you define. Web Strategies will help you define your subsite, register it within Endeca and get a new subsite search box on your web pages. To get started, fill out the subsite search request form which will be available shortly on the web strategies website.

As units across the university take advantage of this new capability conflicts and competition for certain keywords and phrases are bound to arise. Web Strategies will work with units and the marketing and communications group to ensure that any conflicting requests are resolved in a manner that meets the needs of both the unit and university as a whole.