K-State’s new search debuts this Thursday, Aug. 21, and racks up improvements three ways — by using Google, providing quicker visual access to search results, and updating the format of the People Directory results.
The webpage-search results are powered by a Google Search Appliance (GSA) purchased in cooperation with K-State Libraries and K-State Research and Extension. The GSA produces more relevant search results and enables the popular “Did you mean” feature that catches and offers to automatically correct potential spelling errors.
“Three tabs” format
The most obvious change is that results will be presented on a page with three tabs, just like many other popular search sites. The new tabs mean less scrolling and quicker access to specific search results.
The new search still searches three information sources:
* K-State webpages
* K-State people
* K-State departments, units, and organizations
Search results for People Directory
The format of People Directory search results has been improved by observing how people use that data. First, people scan the list of possible matches by name, and second, they scan for identifying information — such as class/major for students, and title/department for faculty and staff.
In the new format, names are larger and more prominent, and identifying information stands out and is more clearly associated with the name.
Will you improve the old version’s most glaring inefficiency? That’s the fact that when you clicked ‘People’ on the K-State homepage, the next page offered you a box to enter the name/eID but *DID NOT PUT THE CURSOR IN THE BOX!!! Who on earth thought the cursor should be anywhere else?