Googlicious
By ColinThe cryptic clue from last week was definitely a tough one: “Google” referred to Google Mini, a search application. As part of the website redesign, we determined that one of the best ways to improve usability was to include a dedicated search engine for the UBC IT site. Ultimately, this should make surfing the IT site easier and more enjoyable.
Implementing Google Mini was more complicated than one might think, as the appliance is a combination of software and hardware… proprietary hardware. The Mini hooks up to our servers, and from there it is able to index our site. I wish I could fully explain how it works, but that’s Google’s secret. You’ll have to settle for some pictures instead:
Above: The Google Mini being unpacked (It’s Christmas day all over again!)
Above: the Google Mini appliance comfortably nestled in the server racks (I think they call it ‘Mini’ because it’s really small).
The Google Mini comes with two key features. Firstly, we can index our site on the fly, so the Google search will never be out of date or point to a non-existent UBC IT website. Secondly, we can use custom redirection, which guides inaccurate or incorrect search terms to proper responses. For example, if we found that a lot of people were searching for ‘University-All Signup’, we might deduce they actually were looking for Campus-Wide Login info, so we could program the University-All Signup search results to include the Campus-Wide Login website. Not that anyone is actually searching for University-All Signup in the first place - that’s just an example.
In short, look for a powerful search tool on the new UBC IT website in the coming months!
Next week: We recently conducted an online survey to get some feedback on our current website. What were we doing wrong? What were we doing right? How does this affect the website redesign? All that and more coming next Monday.
