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Ziff Davis Media now offers advanced search capabilities with the Google Search Appliance
Business Ziff Davis Media is a leading integrated media company serving the technology and videogame markets with publications, websites, conferences, events, online seminars, newsletters, custom publishing, and research. In the United States, Ziff Davis Media publishes seven magazines, including PC Magazine, eWEEK, CIO Insight, Baseline, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. All of this popular content appears online in a network of highly targeted technology and gaming sites such as PCMag.com, eWEEK.com, ExtremeTech.com and 1UP.com. The company also publishes in 48 countries and 19 languages. These media resources provide readers with the information they need to make important purchasing decisions – whether they are corporate technology buyers and users, consumer enthusiasts or gamers. Approach Ziff Davis Media has two dozen branded web sites that attract between 11 and 12 million unique visitors a month, all looking for specific information among hundreds of thousand of pages of content -- from the latest review of digital cameras on www.pcmag.com, to desktop software on www.eweek.com to the newest videogame tips on www.1up.com. Because of this proliferation of titles and properties, Jason Young, president of consumer and small business for Ziff Davis Media, says that “Search is paramount and critical to us,” adding that “The goal of search is the same as the goal of our websites: connecting people to the information they need as quickly as possible.” As the family of sites grew in size and popularity from the initial launch in 2001, the search technology Ziff Davis Media was using from a third party was increasingly unable to connect visitors to content quickly or accurately, despite repeated investments in time, technology and tuning. The urgency to improve search was further compounded by an explosion in the variety of digital content, as well as the dramatic increase in volume. “You name it, we have it -- HTML video, data, webcasts,” says Young. “It’s increasingly important to surround visitors with relevant information in all forms. And that content should be searchable.” To fix its search problem, Ziff Davis Media turned to the Google Search Appliance. “As the leader in search, it seemed natural to leverage the technology of Google,” says Young, adding that Ziff Davis Media also has success with other Google products, such as AdWords, AdSense, and as a beta site for Google Book Search. Results “We have made a marked leap forward with the Google Search Appliance by bringing more relevant content to the forefront,” says Young. “Exposing visitors to everything we have that is relevant to them makes us a much more valuable resource.” Not only does the Google Search Appliance provide more relevant results for users, it is also easier to implement and operate, according to Nino Tasca, director of Internet Technology for Ziff Davis Media. “Once you have the Google Search Appliance installed, it requires little – if any – human intervention,” says Tasca. “That has saved us countless hours in comparison to our previous search product.” In addition, the improved flexibility of the Google Search Appliance allows Ziff Davis Media to offer advanced search capabilities that were previously not possible. By working with LTech Consulting, a member of the Google Enterprise Professional program, visitors to www.pcmag.com, for instance, can refine searches and drill more deeply within a certain range of search results, such as the specific price or category of a product. After searching for digital camera, a visitor has the option to refine the search query based on vendor, price, resolution, camera type, etc. This segmentation is dynamic and at each step a visitor has the option to perform a keyword search in that category or to drill down into another category. “In many ways, the evolution of the search box has followed the evolution of media sites on the web,” Young says. “The search box used to be hidden in the upper right hand corner of the page. Now, search is front and center. Similarly, media sites used to tell visitors the path they needed to navigate. Now, every page is a home page. We need to give people the tools to build the specific story that interests them. And the search functionality we get with the Google Search Appliance is critical for meeting that business objective.” About the Google Search Appliance The Google Search Appliance is an integrated corporate search solution that extends Google’s award-winning search technology to intranets and websites. The Google Search Appliance is available in three models: the GB-1001 for departments and mid-sized companies; the GB-5005 for dedicated, high-priority search services such as customer-facing websites and company-wide intranet applications; and the GB-8008 for centralized deployments supporting global business units. |
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