Agnes Molnar, Search Explained

How to mess up Search in five easy steps?

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 18, 2018 | Enterprise Search, training |

You know implementing and maintaining search is challenging. It’s easy to mess up. Chances are you’ve already heard several horror stories. Or probably, if you work with search, you’ve already made some of those mistakes, too. (Shhhh, I’m not going to tell your manager it was you! 😉 ) In the last 15+ years, I have seen so many search mistakes I cannot even count them. The main reason, in my opinion, is that search has a very special position in every organization’s life: Search is considered to be a “black box”, users don’t understand how it works. At...

Content Migration does not have to be a painful experience

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 17, 2018 | Content Management, Digital Workplace |

Planning for a content migration is always a big challenge. Moving content to a new system as it is stored in the legacy store sounds like the easiest solution, but just adding a few additional steps can make the new system much more beneficial and the user adoption significantly easier. I know it sounds like a science fiction, but there are several practical steps you can instantly consider. Let me introduce a few of them. Before you do anything: clean-up your content Before doing anything, it is highly recommended to start with a detailed content audit and make appropriate adjustments to...

The Search Lab – Summer School 2018

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 14, 2018 | events, Uncategorized |

How to Turn Off a Query Rule?

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 11, 2018 | User Experience |

Recently I’ve got a question by chat here on our website, and after responding it there I thought I’d share the detailed response here as well. The question was: how to turn off a Query Rule on a page in SharePoint (on-prem or online)? Result Sources As mentioned in the question, a Query Rule is always assigned to a Result Source. Therefore, if you don’t want to use a Query Rule in your Result Set, one way to implement this is to create a new Result Source, and not to define any Query Rules. If you use this...

Webinar: “Search First” Content Migration

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 7, 2018 | Monthly topics, Search Minutes webinar |

When migrating content from an old version of SharePoint to a new one; or from SharePoint on-prem to Office 365; or from a file share to SharePoint / OneDrive / Office 365 – one of the most critical questions is always the findability of content, regardless of its migration status. Often, migration takes a long time (even months), and users get confused very soon if they don’t know where to find what. In this webinar, I’m introducing the “Search First” content migration approach. Register now invite your search manager, content owner, and even power users, to help everyone understand...

Search Is Broken. Users Are Unhappy. What To Do?

Posted by Agnes Molnar | May 3, 2018 | User Experience |

As a consultant and trainer, I often get feedback from users of enterprise search solutions. We can learn about their pain points and their expectations, and act accordingly to improve search. What can you do if your users are complaining about search? Users will tell us when they can’t find the results they need or when the results are outdated. When users are unhappy they will abandon search altogether. When they do, users end up asking their colleagues for information and fall back on old habits like sending documents by attachment in an email instead of sharing them on...

Your Intranet Is Only as Good as Your Metadata

Posted by Agnes Molnar | Apr 30, 2018 | Uncategorized |

Your intranet is one of your organization’s most important assets. Employees visit it on a regular basis, and more importantly, work there and spend a significant amount of time there. Search is an essential part of the success of any digital workplace, and intranets are no exception. But in order for search to succeed, you need two things in place: good quality taxonomy and metadata. The truth is search isn’t supposed to “understand” anything Click To Tweet >> Read my latest article on...

Enterprise Search as a Product

Posted by Agnes Molnar | Apr 27, 2018 | Enterprise Search |

When I saw James Robertson’s keynote speech at IntraTeam Event 2018 in Copenhagen, Denmark, it confirmed to me that, when it comes to enterprise search, we should be treating it in the same way as any other software products. In other words, enterprise search requires ongoing management because it’s not a one-off project. This concept was one of the hottest topics at the conference. Compared to a project, which requires building a business case and getting funding on an ad hoc basis, a product will evolve and will need upgrading over time. Both small and big changes will be...

Search is broken. Users are unhappy. What to do? – Webinar on April 11

Posted by Agnes Molnar | Apr 2, 2018 | Monthly topics, Search Minutes |

Your users keep complaining. They cannot find anything. Search doesn’t provide relevant results. Using search is not intuitive at all. The users want search to know their intent. To help them. To make their jobs easier. Search has to make users’ lives easier. Click To Tweet Instead, it’s messy. It’s useless. It’s a pain. Nobody uses it. But you know it can be better. You just need help with how to fix everything. How to make the first steps. How to make your users happy searchers. And how to make them find what they are searching for. I have good...

Topic of April: Search User Experience – Real World Use Cases and Best Practices

Posted by Agnes Molnar | Apr 2, 2018 | events, Monthly topics |

In March, our topic was Search Metadata. Continuing the series, this month we are going to talk about the Search User Experience: Real World Use Cases and Best Practices. During my courses, workshops, and consulting engagements it’s always a nice challenge to identify what results are relevant to the users and how to display them. This is the primary reason why I decided to choose “Search User Experience” as the topic of this month: Search Minutes video: Search-Driven Dashboards >> April 4, 2018 3pm CET / 9am EST / 6am PST Webinar: Search is broken. Users are unhappy. What to do? >>...

Author: Agnes Molnar