About Findability

1. Findability theory: What is Findability?

• Finding a website in the WWW
• Finding content on the Website
• Navigating a website with ease
• Tracing a website with ease

2. Findability areas: Searchability and Information Architecture

• Structured information
• Relevant information
• Indexable information

3. Findability tools: Search box and Google CSE

• Processing queries
• Retrieving data
• Ignoring stopwords
• Matching with autocorrect
• Filtering results

About Google Custom Search Engine

1. What is GCSE?

• Customised search engine widget
• Free API with Javascript

2. Where do you use GCSE?

• Webpages and blogs
• E-commerce platforms
• Portfolios, Libraries, Domains

3. When do you use GCSE?

• Testing structured data
• Prototyping User Experience
• Searching (a selection) of websites

4. How do you set up GCSE?

1. Sign up for a Google account
2. Define Sites to search, name and language
3. Customise settings
4. Get code and insert into HTML document
5. Common issues

5. Why do you use GCSE?

• Quick set up
• Improved navigation
• Link to external webpages
• Boosted indexing
• Noticeable downsides

Alternatives to Google Custom Search Engine

1. Browser side

• DuckDuckgo Custom Search engine
• Yandex site search

2. Server side

• SolR
• Elasticsearch

Beyond search engines?

1. Filtering

• Search vs Research
• Research engines: Wolframalpha,BASE, Europeana

2. Customising

• Search vs Share
• Social Media Networking: Youtube, Twitter
• Sharing websites and apps: WeTransfer, Photobucket

3. Securing

• Search vs Track
• Blockchain engines: Yacy, PreSearch

Summary

1. GCSE is a searchability tool

• One common option for a wide range of users
• Many new alternatives available

2. GCSE is a findability tool

• Supports indexing and back links
• Can potentially improve SEO and SERP

3. GCSE is a marketing tool

• Promotes its business
• Monetises its database

Sources

1. Findability and Searchability

1. Smart Insights: https://www.smartinsights.com/user-experience/information-architecture-user-experience-persuasion-marketing/findability-in-web-design-and-marketing/
2. Curtisdigital.com: https://curtisdigital.com/findability-vs-searchability-whats-the-difference-and-why-should-you-care/
3. Everypageispageone.com: https://everypageispageone.com/2012/03/21/findability-vs-searchability/

2. Google Custom Search Engine

1. GCSE Documentation:https://developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/overview
2. Programmable Web: https://www.programmableweb.com/api/google-custom-search

3. Alternatives to GCSE

1. Blog.expertrec.com: https://blog.expertrec.com/google-site-search-alternative/
2. Holithemes.com: https://www.holithemes.com/alternative-to-google-custom-search-engine-cse/

4. Beyond Search Engines

1. Public libraries online: http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2016/02/search-vs-research/
2. JISC: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/ten-search-engines-for-researchers-that-go-beyond-google-11-jul-2013
3. Razor social: http://www.razorsocial.com/content-sharing/
4. Four Week MBA: https://fourweekmba.com/distributed-search-engines-vs-google/