No 4, September 2009
Welcome to the latest edition of the Funnelback newsletter for 2009.
It's been 10 weeks now since Funnelback was acquired by Squiz. Funnelback is continuing to run as an independent company and whilst the acquisition has resulted in no major changes to our business model we've been incredibly busy with some exciting new developments. Last month Funnelback was announced as a Winner in the Canberra Business Council Business Success Series and as a finalist in the ACT Chief Minister's Export Awards. We’ve also signed many new customers such as Clive Peeters, The Australia Council, NSW Health, Land and Water Australia, Melbourne University’s Find an Expert, the Australian Energy Market Operator and business.gov.au. In response to this, we’ve added significantly to the Funnelback team. This includes new members to both the Products and Services and Research and Development teams, as well as Maria Slavkovic who is our new office administrator.
Our Chief Scientist, Dr David Hawking, delivered a warmly received presentation at a well attended Gartner event in Darling Harbour last month. In his talk, David argued the business benefit of effective search by informing the audience that “ineffective search leads to decreased productivity, reduced competitiveness and non-delivery of relevant and sometimes critical information”.
Other big news is that Funnelback has now established a UK based subsidiary aptly named Funnelback UK. Through this subsidiary we plan to expand our reach into international markets. We’ll have more exciting news on this front in the next newsletter.
We’d also like to apologise to anyone who has had trouble phoning us over the last couple of months. We’ve experienced a range of different problems with our phone lines and our telecommunications service. However, after much investigation all the issues have now been resolved.
And finally, Funnelback’s annual Forum has been scheduled for Friday 27th November 2009 so please bookmark the date in your diary. The Forum will be held at the National Portrait Gallery this year and we have an exciting agenda planned. We’ll also be offering an additional day of hands on training for those interested. Registrations and bookings for the event will open shortly. Keep an eye on our website or look out for our email notification. Be sure to book your place early as places are strictly limited.
Enjoy the newsletter and we hope to see you at the Forum in November.
Brett Matson
Managing Director
Measuring and comparing the quality of search results
Author: Dr. David Hawking, Funnelback's Chief Scientist
Improving the quality of the search results delivered by your website or enterprise search facility can have a significant effect on your organisation's revenues, cost base and productivity. But how can we measure how well a search engine is working, tune it to maximize performance and compare it with its competitors?
Read the full article on 'Measuring and comparing the quality of search results'
Five Levels of Design Considerations for Effective Search Implementation
Author: Brett Matson, Managing Director, Funnelback
These days there are few knowledge workers who fail to recognise the benefits of highly effective search. This article outlines five levels of search implementation design considerations that progressively lead to more effective search across web sites, intranets and other corporate repositories.
Read the full article on Five Levels of Design Considerations for Effective Search Implementation
Funnelback PI: Digging up the Dirt on Your Organisation’s Website
Author: Dan Nitsche, Technical Consultant, Pre and Post Sales
When introducing a new application to your organisation, it doesn't take much digging to awaken the business monsters that have been hiding in the dark corners of your office. Be it the business process that's "always been like that", or the files that "are on this floppy disc", be prepared for some shocks at what's been going on behind the scenes.
Funnelback is no exception, and is likely to find all kinds of things you didn't know about your website and Intranet. Read the full story on 'Digging up the Dirt on Your Organisation’s Website' and discover some interesting examples you can try over your own Funnelback installation.
Author: Product & Services Team, Funnelback
- No index directives. You can define parts of content which should not be indexed and made searchable in Funnelback. This is useful in excluding common navigation elements, headers and footers.
- Restricting results to specific directories. You can restrict search results to a specific directory.
- Reports blacklist. A list of search terms, searches from a certain IP addresses, or a combination of the two can be configured to be ignored by the reporting system. This helps preventing unwanted spam searches from appearing in the Query Reports system.
We hope you've enjoyed our latest newsletter.
If you'd like to suggest how we can improve the Funnelback product or,
you're interested in a search tuning and upgrade,
please call Ph: 02 6175 8500 or email: media@funnelback.com.
We're always happy to hear from you.
Sincerely, The Funnelback Team
