Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category
Make Phrases With SortFix
June 17th, 2010 | Author: Amir Lavi CEO
Here we are again with more improvements to make your search much more precise and effective!
This time we bring you a gesture that has never been implemented before: the possibility of creating phrases just by dragging and dropping. As you might know, a phrase search looks for multiple words near one another in the exact order in which you wrote them, thus making the query more specific and narrowing the results significantly.
To make a phrase just drag a word to the “add to search” or “remove” box and place it next to another one and it will intuitively give you the possibility to unite them.
To break the phrase apart drag the last word somewhere else (to the “remove” box, back to the “power words” or simply above or below the other words inside the “add to search” box).
This is a very powerful feature that will improve your search in a remarkable way….
Start enjoying the refined results from a much more precise query right away!
Web Search, Child’s Play?
May 4th, 2010 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
We all know that the younger generation is much more tech savvy than our generation, and we can asumme that most children use the popular engines (Google,Yahoo!). Most of us don’t know more than that on children and search engine. There are more ways children search the web. In this post we will try to explore it.
Improved Search with Ipad and Iphone
February 14th, 2010 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
The Ipad is something different. This device defers from other tablets especially because of its interface and usability behavior. It’s also different from the Iphone or other smart phones and mobile devices because of its size. One of Apple’s goals, I think, is to replace our portable devices such as laptops and notebooks, and not the iPhone or other smart phones.
Ipad
SortFix 2010 – Just got Upgraded
January 21st, 2010 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
In our previous posts, we mentioned (by the way of course) that soon enough our new design will be launched. Well, soon enough just became… Now!!! This post is all about it.
Sortfix New Logo
Words per Search – Size Matters
December 3rd, 2009 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
One of the things we mentioned in our last post was the length of an average search query. We can assume that often the length of the search query will determine the relevance of the search results. In this post we will explore the impact of search queries on our Web experience.
As mentioned in our last post, the average number of words used for each search query is relatively low (3.3). In many cases it is almost impossible to arrive at an effective search string in 2 to 3 words. The search query isn’t sufficiently specific for the search engine to retrieve relevant results. Let’s look at a search example to better understand the challenge.
Say that we’re going to tour Europe on vacation and we want to rent a car. A typical search query would probably be something like “rent a car europe.” The results on Google would look like this:
(Try to think about what’s missing in the results. The answer is in the next paragraph.)
Search Engine Algorithm and SEO
November 30th, 2009 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
SEO is a very up-to-date industry. The search algorithms evolve constantly; competition is great and very dynamic. One of the key factors that has an impact on SEO is search engine algorithms, and more specifically, Google’s page rank. In this post, we will review some of the current views and recommendations, and take a look at a few past views that are still very relevant in 2009.
I had the idea for this post when I found a blog post from March 2005 at Search EngineLand by Christine Churchill on search engine algorithms. This four year old post is still relevant. Although the examples there are for Ask Jeeves, they mostly apply for Google also. According to this post, the two main factors that impact searches are content and linkage. These still very much apply. Content is of course a key factor, due to the fact that search engines rely on text analysis and the relevance of the content to its segment/industry. Linkage, the second factor, influence the level of relevance (and relationships) that is determined by the search engine. Read the rest of this entry »
Personalized Search Tools
September 10th, 2009 | Author: Doron Gez Marketing Business Development
As we have explored in previous posts, the whole concept of “search” is evolving. One of the ways search is shifting to, is semantic search, which we looked at previously; another is personalized search, which is the subject in this post.
In general, personalized search means that the users’ search activity and history influences their search results. In most cases personalized search tools, such as Google suggest, monetize the users’ search activity, record which search results the users prefer, and makes use of that data to personalize search results. When users are signed in to Google, they can use personalized Google search.
The Google Suggest tool
Power Words™: Producing a Powerful Search Query
August 26th, 2009 | Author: Yohay Barsky CTO
Many people have asked me about SortFix’s Power Words feature. I realized that although most people understand very well that the Power Words are those words related to the search, and should be added to the search query. Only a few grasped the idea that Power Words can be used as a negative filter.
Therefore, in this post, I’ve decided to elaborate about the power of our Power Words.
SortFix Power Words
SortFix Interface – Past, Present & Future
August 2nd, 2009 | Author: Amir Lavi CEO
About three years ago, in the early stages of SortFix, we started usability testing the SortFix Search User Interface (SUI) with our parents, sisters, brothers, and friends. We implemented the system as a program and our algorithms were calculated on the users’ computers.
Due to the fact that we didn’t have any funding back then, we had to be present at every search session with any family member or friend.
Our usability testing method back then went something like this: We gave our “subjects” several search tasks. We sat by them quietly as they undertook the search. Without helping them in any way, we studied the way they searched, observed where they ran into difficulties, and saw what part of our SUI wasn’t clear enough. We asked them questions and worked to improve the system’s interface bit by bit. Our method wasn’t particularly efficient, but at the time, it was cost-effective!
SortFix SUI Concept Sketches
Then we decided to upload the SortFix SUI to an online environment and test our system on even more users. We asked our family and friends to tell their friends and families to start using our new tool. At this point we got a lot more feedback. We had a lot of debugging to do, but it was worth it. Instead of doing a focus group on just 30 users or so, we actually reached 10 times more — without paying a dime.
SortFix SUI Concept Sketches
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