Great Online Media Search Interfaces

August 27, 2006 9:32 AM

What are some examples of newspaper, magazine, or content archive sites that you think have really good search interfaces?

I'm interested in your criteria--what's 'good' to me would include: ability to modify query from the results page by date, section, and subject filters; clear distinction of ads from organic results; at least five organic results above the fold; sort by date and relevance; ability to view results by media type. To my mind, The New York Times comes closest, but I'm hoping there's a great search interface out there that I haven't found yet.

posted by pessoa to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Jessemyn posted about the superlative NCSU Online Public Access Catalog which is about as good as it gets for a complex collection. The Flamenco faceted search interface does incredibly well in user testing but it's efficacy will depend on how well your metadata address top-level facets.

I'm pressed for time right now, but I'll set up the mefibrarian signal and hopefully someone will show up and explain a little better why faceted search rocks.
posted by stet at 1:08 PM on August 27, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the tips, stet, and no explanation necessary: faceted navigation does rock. I wasn't aware of Flamenco--looks very similar to Siderean Navigator.
posted by pessoa at 8:06 AM on August 28, 2006