Blogs – Page 3 – TNR Global

Mobile Search: Good UX means fewer touches, simple design

Mobile search must be designed for a minimum number of touches before users arrive at the end result. If it takes more than 2-3 touches, the user will look elsewhere for answers.

Mobile phones are rapidly taking over the scene of web development, significantly impacting commerce, advertising, gaming, entertainment, banking and news. 77% of the world’s population or 5.3 billion people are mobile subscribers. China and India lead the way in overall mobile growth. Virtually every measurable metric concerning mobile phone growth indicates entire economies being influenced by mobile technology. It’s not surprising that search technology is powering mobile growth just as it has it’s larger cousin the desktop.

Mobile search used to be clunky and a pain to use. Until recently, the answer was to miniaturize the website. For a time, people thought mobile search would never be as good as the desktop search. But, as people use their phones for more and more, it has forced designers to consider how to make search, as well as all mobile apps, simple and powerful and built for end users.

The Mobile Only World

Outside the US, countries like India, South Africa and Egypt are leaders in mobile only--meaning users do not or infrequently use a desktop or laptop to access the Internet–making mobile search their primary mechanism for accessing queried information. Since these are also the countries sporting the most mobile growth, they are driving the need for quality relevant search for the mobile market.

Young and free

Another driving metric in the mobile game are young people. The under 25 crowd use a cell phone as their primary mode of accessing the Internet. Mobile phones, smart phones in particular, are used to do nearly everything. Younger people are more open to conducting transactions online via phone than any other demographic. Shopping, banking, GPS, social media, gaming–mobile access allows mobile subscribers to do everything they need to without restricting the user to an office.

Key differences for UX Impact

Key difference between mobile search and desktop search seem obvious. On a cell phone, the screen is much, much smaller. Users are on the go and may access the Internet between tasks or meetings, instead of being in one area. Access needs to be quick and simple. Mobile search must be designed for a minimum number of touches before users arrive at the end result. If it takes more than 2-3 touches, the user will look elsewhere for answers. Fewer touches mean a simpler design, engineered for the user without a lot of fanfare or complication.

Huge Growth

Google reports that 1 in 7 searches are now done via mobile vs. desktop. Mobile searches have increased fourfold in just the last year. Businesses need a mobile application to ensure they are reaching the inbound web traffic looking for their services and products. Mobile applications need a strong search technology to ensure the consumer can connect with the products or information they are looking for. The companies that build their web solution for the mobile market are the companies who will gain more market share and capture that 14% of customers searching for their products on the mobile web.

For the enterprise, accessing important information inside and outside the firewall is vitally important as more content is built within businesses and accessed digitally. With the mounting demand placed on mobile phones and devices, the performance we’ve come to expect from out desktop needs to be scaled to a smaller screen by simplifying wireframes with sophistication and well thought out design.

Our View
TNR Global’s expertise lies in deep back end knowledge using powerful search technologies to give users fast, relevant search results for enterprise sites and large web portals. Recognizing the need for search to work as powerfully for a mobile application as well as a web application, we have teamed up with talented UX designers specifically in the field of search application design for web and mobile. Whether you are looking for a customized UX front end for your search solution or an out of the box answer for mobile search, TNR can connect you with a total solution to answer your web based and mobile search needs. For a free consultation, contact us.

UK Software Company TwigKit Partners with TNR Global to Deliver Search Solutions for FAST and Solr

Hadley, MA–November 28, 2011–TNR Global announced today that they have entered into a strategic partnership with London, UK software company TwigKit.

“Our companies have a number of qualities in common that allow us to combine forces and service clients with a very complete solution” says Karen Lynn, TNR Global’s Director of Business Development. “TwigKit has a very appealing user interface for users across several platforms, and TNR’s strength is on creating a powerful back end search application. Combined, it’s a powerful solution for companies needing a strong search function with an easy to use interface.”

Representatives from the two companies have been in friendly talks for over a year now, meeting periodically at industry conferences. Both companies were in attendance at the Apache Lucene EuroCon conference in Barcelona last October, where the partnership was formalized. Both presentations from TwigKit and TNR can be viewed here.

“TNR’s focus on implementing and servicing enterprise search solutions across a number of platforms is an excellent fit for TwigKit,” says Stefan Olafsson, TwigKit’s co-founder and chief architect. “Our software enables polished user interfaces for search-based applications, provides a rapid development framework, and works across a number of enterprise search platforms including Microsoft FAST and Apache Solr. We’re excited about working with TNR to produce search solutions that boast both a superb user experience and an outstanding technical implementation.”

TwigKit powers enterprise search applications in government and blue-chip organizations. Encapsulating search best practices into configurable components, TwigKit establishes a platform-independent standard compatible with most search technologies including Microsoft FAST, Google Search Appliance, and Apache Solr. Started in London in 2009, TwigKit’s founders organize the 350-member Enterprise Search London meetup, regularly speak at conferences, and write about search and user experience for publications including A List Apart, Boxes & Arrows, and UX Magazine.

TNR Global (TNR) is a systems design and integration company focused on enterprise search and cloud computing solutions. TNR develops scalable web-based search solutions built on the open source LAMP stack. TNR has over 10 years of hands-on experience in web systems and enterprise search implementations, both proprietary and open source search technologies, specializing in FAST and Lucene Solr search applications. Specifically TNR works with content intensive websites for companies and organizations in the following industries: News Sites, Publishing, Web Directories, Information Portals, Web Catalogs, Education, Manufacturing and Distribution, Customer Service, and Life Sciences. TNR Global has offices in western Massachusetts.

Selling Search Internally–Part 2–How to get buy in from the staff

“The truth is that if your end user of the solution doesn’t like the solution, they won’t use it.”

You’ve convinced the powers that be that a search solution is a necessary strategy for success and competitive advantage. Congratulations! Nice work. Think your job is done? Not by a long shot.

Ask your staff–what would a good solution look like to them? After you’ve decided to move forward with a search solution, it’s important, no–it’s crucial that you consider strongly the end user. If you have a web portal that you manage, it’s worth polling your typical customer to gather vital data on how they want their experience to be. If you are looking at an enterprise search solution, you need to spend time exploring what your staff wants and needs out of a solution, and ensure your search solution addresses design for them….not a boilerplate solution that only meets some of your needs. Search is an expensive endeavor, if you’re spending the money, you might as well get exactly what you want.

The truth is that if your end user of the solution doesn’t like the solution, they won’t use it. So getting the end user involved in the planning stage of the search project is vital to it’s overall success. If they have input to it’s overall features and design, they will be more invested in using it. Involving users manufactures all kinds of good-will collateral that can help develop better morale and a positive workplace. Doing this early in the process also introduces change more slowly to users–and people rarely react well to lots of radical change. Making them a part of the process and doing it early with lots of prepping for change can affect overall satisfaction rates with the search implementation after it’s complete.

Once the implementation actually goes live, you’ll need to ensure a training plan is in place and executed to ensure ongoing success. A successful search solution isn’t just done once it’s implemented. You need to work to include your whole team in the training process, and allow them to see for themselves how the solution is going to help them in their day to day tasks. If you included your staff in the planning of the design from the beginning, you’ll be much more successful once the solution is deployed, because they were part of the solution all along.

Selling Search Internally–Part 1–How to get buy-in from your boss

“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” –BC Forbes

You are a <insert your profession here> (Department Head, IT Leader, Operations Regional Manager, HR Manager, End User) in your business or organization. You have a problem. You can’t find information. Your staff is spending time tracking down that invoice from a few years ago, looking for the part number that a customer needs, searching for that great resume. It’s somewhere….but where? You see your staff is frustrated, disenchanted, defeated. You see that time is being wasted, and customers are grouchy because they can’t access products or information you have online. Maybe you’re losing customers. It’s hard to tell because you just got another 20 emails since you checked an hour ago and there are 10 reports on your desk awaiting your review. You are awash in information–drowning, and you are supposed to be in charge of keeping all this organized. Sound familiar?

Search solves this. Search, discovery, sharing information…it all leads to faster service to customers, less staff frustration, and higher productivity. It has been said that a good search solution either saves you money inside the firewall or makes you money outside the firewall. Either way, your organization is more competitive with a search solution that delivers the right information at the right time.

But how do you convince the boss that your company would benefit in an investment in search technology? This is the tricky part for many managers inside organizations. Search is hard, and often expensive. Here are the main points you should make with your boss.

Search isn’t a box, it’s an engine
Search makes money / saves money = bottom line results
Sharing information promotes better decision making, faster response time
Search will give your organization a competitive edge in a cutthroat marketplace

This isn’t a single conversation. The most successful campaigns for better search technology involve many voices, not just yours. An organized vocal group inside your organization who can present business leaders with a solution that will effect the bottom line is hard to ignore. And the basics in selling any idea to your boss should also be minded, such as:

If you come with a problem, come with a solution
Give real examples to back up your suggestions for improvement
Be diplomatic: even the best organizations can be political
Maintain relationships (don’t throw anyone under the bus)
Who will benefit and how? Break it down for consideration

Change is tough, but I find that this saying by B.C Forbes sums up why it’s important to push the issue “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”

Search and Steel Girders

“Search by itself may look like a simple box, but behind the box is a foundry of girders, cross beams, and structural support that allows you to find what you need.”

“Search ties people together…”

This was one of the many themes at the Enterprise Search Summit in Washington, DC last week. It seems like a fairly obvious statement, but it quickly becomes part of the landscape, taken for granted even though the landscape couldn’t function without it. I have compared search function to the steel girders of a skyscraper. When you walk into the building, you aren’t thinking about the beams holding the building up or connecting floors, but without them, you wouldn’t have a building at all (you couldn’t even find the lobby). Other metaphors overheard include oxygen (invisible yet essential), sunlight (lest we remain in the dark) and electricity (everything stops without it).

Attendees of the conference know how important search is to companies, but increasingly, companies are taking search for granted. There is a fundamental gap in communicating the importance and difficulty of implementing a good search platform.

Companies who need search to run on their website or intranet, expect search to work as it does on the Internet, but this is an apples and oranges scenario.

Here are the main disconnects:

Search is easy
Search is cheap
It never has to be touched again

People expect search inside the firewall to function much like Google does outside the firewall. Google exists for end users and is really, really incredible. It Geo-locates, it auto-completes. It uses your browsing history to provide more relevant results. And you had no financial investment in using this really lovely, elegant, useful tool that doesn’t just assist your Internet experience, but facilitates it. But behind the firewall, things are different. Let me explain.

Your business content isn’t publicly available or known. I mean, that would be bad, right? It’s behind the firewall for a reason. So keeping it there yet allowing your staff to access certain levels of information takes some architecture and planning.

Google has thousands of developers working on this beautiful, incredible technology every day. They finance this by ad content. How many people do you have on your search team? And how much of their day do they really spend on search? What department is being billed for it? Business leaders need to embrace this as a necessary cost of doing business and budget accordingly, or face the crippling result of staff and customers not being able to find the information they need.

80% of your content is unstructured. Meaning, search engines can’t really read it until some love and care is put into cleaning the data. This is a vital, yet time intense process. Our VP of Search Technologies Michael McIntosh says “We spend about 90% of our time on the document processing pipeline, conditioning data to be fed into the engine.” Moreover, unstructured data isn’t a set number. It’s being creating faster than you can blink by your entire enterprise. Processing it is never a done deal.

So if search connects us, hopefully this finds you thinking about search in more realistic terms. Search by itself may look like a simple box, but behind the box is a foundry of girders, cross beams, and structural support that allows you to find what you need to “make money outside the firewall or save money inside the firewall.”

TNR Global Attends KMWorld’s Enterprise Search Summit Fall 2011

A proof of concept and rapid integration are essential for search customers–they cannot visualize what a search solution will look like without some help from the search professional.

Last week TNR Global attended the Enterprise Search Summit organized by KMWorld in Washington, DC. VP of Search Technologies Michael McIntosh and Director of Business Development Karen E. Lynn attended the three day conference and Enterprise Solutions Showcase at the Marriott Wardman Park. Several companies were in attendance, and some common themes emerged. Among these were designing for users, dealing with unstrcutured content, the need for better search and content analytics to facilitate better search results, as well as tagging content as part of a best practice in workflow. Also discussed was the need for search vendors to demonstrate to search customers was “right looks like” in a search solution. A proof of concept and rapid integration are essential for search customers–they cannot visualize what a search solution will look like without some help from the search professional.

An unexpected surprise came when the speaker on open source search was unable to attend at the last moment, our own Michael McIntosh was asked to step in and present on the subject. Fortunately, he was fresh from his presentation at Apache Lucene EuroCon and already had his presentation loaded on his machine. Michael discussed Solr and made general points on migrating from a commercial search engine like FAST ESP to a open source platform like Lucene Solr.

Overall it was a great conference with lots of informative talks and friendly search professionals. We’re looking forward to the next Enterprise Search Summit in Spring, 2012.

Search Fuels Business Intelligence for Decision Making

“The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds.” said Arthur Miller. Can your search technology find the gems buried inside your own business?

“The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds.” said Arthur Miller. The same can be said about the invaluable data inside your business. It’s there, ready to be mined. But unless you have the right tools, you’ll never get to those diamonds.

Content is expanding at an exponential rate. I don’t know anyone in any business who can keep up with the pace of content growth, without the use of powerful search engines to find and extract relevant information. Business analysts expect content to grow 800% over the next 5 years. Business intelligence requires extraction of the right information, and most enterprises have both structured and unstructured data. Structured data is easy for most search engines to search. The rub is in unstructured content–of which there is abundance. Unstructured content is said to account for 70-80% of data in all organizations. This type of content is often in the form of documents, email messages, health records, HTML pages, books, metadata, audio, video, and various other files. All these files have to be “cleaned up” before feeding them through a search engine in order to get results with any kind of value or relevance.

Mining this data is going to be essential for not just the success, but the survival of many businesses. James Kobielus, an analyst at Forrester Research, reports in an interview with ComputerWorld that businesses will increasingly turn to a self-service BI throughout 2011 and beyond. “Increasingly, enterprises will adopt new Web-based interactive querying and reporting tools that are designed to put more data analytics capabilities into the hands of end users,” he said. A good search engine that can find data quickly and easily can “take the burden off IT and speed up the development of reports to a considerable degree,” Kobielus said. The information mined by a search engine tuned to the specific business needs facilities better decision making for people a every job function within the enterprise. “Because every business is a little different, and so many organizations house so much unstructured content, most search engines can’t cover everything that is needed without some customization” said Michael McIntosh, our VP of Search Technologies at TNR Global. “Data conditioning is vital to unstructured content. Without someone paying attention to filtering out the garbage in unstructured content, you’re not going to get a good search result. The last thing a business needs is it’s search results working against them.”

“The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds.” said Arthur Miller. Can your search technology find the gems buried inside your own business?

For more information on how data mining and a customized search engine can move your business forward, contact us for a free consultation.

We’re at Apache Lucene EuroCon in Barcelona 2011

“We’re certain that the urgency to migrate off FAST ESP will be ramping up significantly.”

We’re very excited to be in attendance at the Apache Lucene EuroCon in Barcelona October 17, 18, 19, and 20th, 2011. Our own Michael McIntosh, VP of Search Technologies will be presenting a talk on October 19th, Enterprise Search: FAST ESP to Lucene Solr. The good folks at Lucid Imagination are presenting the conference and will be video recording his talk for future broadcast.

After the conference, Michael will author a White Paper on migrating from FAST ESP to Lucene Solr, expected in November 2011. For a free copy of the White Paper, email us expressing your interest at fast2solr@tnrglobal.com. We believe that those businesses operating on a Linux system will be seeking out the power of Lucene Solr as their licenses expire and support for FAST ESP dries up. We’ve worked with FAST ESP for 7 years and understand it’s strengths and weaknesses. We know businesses who are used to the power of FAST ESP will need something just as powerful, and Lucene Solr is a very nice fit. “It’s a robust platform, capable of a lot that FAST ESP covers,” said Michael. “We’re certain that the urgency to migrate off FAST ESP will be ramping up significantly.”

How to carry Steve Jobs’ spirit & vision forward with us

“He helped show us what beauty can be found at the heart of even our most technologically advanced offerings if we can just *imagine* the possibilities.”

I mourn Steve’s passing and feel the tremendous void of his absence. At the same time I rejoice and revel in his accomplishments, his amazing impact on this world and the people around him.

Steve and the people he inspired have had a tremendous direct impact on the quality of my professional life as a software engineer and tinkerer. He helped provide and inspire the creation of amazing tools that are a joy to use and work with. He helped show us what beauty can be found at the heart of even our most technologically advanced offerings if we can just imagine the possibilities.

If we wish to preserve the spirit of his vision and carry his way of looking at the world and technology products forward, we should also look at the people who came before that inspired Steve himself. An individual who was a great inspiration to Steve was a man named Edwin H. Land, a scientist and inventor of instant photography as well as co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Edwin H. Land came about as close as the equivalent of being a rock star to the general public as any scientist has for his time. There is a great article discussing the impact Edwin Land had on Steve Jobs that is well worth a read.

There is a great presentation called 12 Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Guy Kawasaki by Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bestselling author, and one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. He outlines the principles that guided Steve’s outlook in regard to business and product development that can be applied to all of our efforts.

If we wish to preserve Steve Jobs’ spirit and way of thinking in our world despite his absence, we would do well to look closely at his life, those who inspired him and the people he inspired and surrounded himself with. No innovator succeeds purely on their own, and while Steve Jobs is no exception, his vision, tenacity and leadership clearly has had broad and long reaching impact on our world.

Thank you for your contributions to our world Steve, you will be greatly missed.

-Michael McIntosh, VP of Search Technologies, TNR Global, LLC

A Visionary Passes: Steve Jobs Remembered

On October 5, 2011 at age 56, Steve Jobs passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. He had been battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer for 7 years.

Steve Jobs with revolutionary tablet computer, the iPad.

Apple’s board of directors wrote:

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion, and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

In 1976, our CEO Rich Roth was a novice engineer and member of the (in)famous Homebrew Club.
Rich’s wife Sharon worked at the Byte Shop in Palo Alto where one of her responsibilities was to take
orders for the ‘new’ Apple I — and then go to Steve’s garage and pick up ordered computers and
deliver them to the other computer stores in the Bay area.

Steve Jobs with the Apple 1, 1976, Computer Show

Rich had the following to say about Jobs’ death:

“It’s been a long and interesting ride, Steve. We and the world will miss you.”

We sure will.