atw: Re: Helping users find your docs via search engines
- From: "Marcus Amann" <marcus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 10:06:21 +1000
On the subject of applying search engines to Web sites and intranets, =
what products have you come across that are relatively cheap and easy to =
implement? Or do you code your own search engine?
Using the free Google search engine isn't an option because of the ads =
that appear in the results of a search.
Any recommendations appreciated.
Marcus Amann
Technical Publications Manager
TOWER Software
This e-mail message (and attachments) may contain information =
confidential to TOWER Software. If you are not the intended recipient =
you cannot use, distribute or copy the message or message attachments. =
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by =
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-----Original Message-----
From: Stewart Walker [mailto:helpfulau@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, 25 August 2003 9:56 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Helping users find your docs via search engines
Hi all
Recently I've been helping a big bank implement a new
search engine on its intranet.
Something we discovered is that a lot of the PDF and
Word docs that hang off HTML pages on the intranet
have rubbish in their metadata, particularly their
Title property.
"So what," you ask? The Title property is what many
search engines use as the document title when listing
items on search result pages.
As an example, many of the PDFs on the bank's intranet
were created from Quark Express. Either Quark or
Distiller seems to insert the Quark doc's filename as
the PDF's Title property. This has resulted in doc
titles like 23041999.qxd. When it comes to helping a
user decide whether to click a link that appears on a
search results page, these titles are as useful as an
ashtray on a motorbike!!
So on behalf of search engine users everywhere, I have
a plea: every time you publish a non-HTML file that
users will be able to discover via an intranet,
extranet or web search engine, PLEASE ensure the file
has a meaningful Title property.
Thanks. I feel better now I've got that off my chest
:-)
Cheers
Stewart
-------
Stewart Walker
Helpful Technology Pty Ltd
Melbourne, Australia
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