Comments on: Great Online Media Search Interfaces

Question: Great Online Media Search Interfaces

pessoa — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 09:32:31 -0800

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.

By: stet

stet — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:08:44 -0800

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.

By: pessoa

pessoa — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:06:47 -0800

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.