Controlling search engine guidance

Depending on the results of a search query, the search engine may offer guidance for a follow-on query. For example, if a query generates lots of hits, the search engine may suggest super phrases (queries with more terms) to narrow the search. Alternatively, if a query doesn't generate any hits, the search engine may suggest sub-phrases to widen the search. The suggested phrases appear before the actual hits, if there are any. (See Phrasal Query Suggestions in the Search Library for a discussion of search guidance.)

A new option has been added to the search engine to control the number of suggested super and sub-phrases: phraseN sets the maximum number of suggestions to N. If N is zero, no suggestions are shown. For more details and an example, please see the Search Guide.

New way to control format of search results

As an alternative to using Head and Tail files to control the appearance of search results, you can now use a template file on your website. The benefit of using a template file are

• The file is processed by your webserver, so some server-side processing like includes and scripts are usable.
• The file is read by Blossom each day, so changes you make to the template are automatically reflected in your search results.

For details on using Template Files, please consult the Search Guide section Output Format.

Adaptive ordering of pages

We have begun design of a significant enhancement that takes visitor behavior into account to order pages in response to a query. The basic idea is that when a visitor chooses a particular page in response to a query, the choice is considered a vote for that page being relevant to the query. As a page collect votes, it will be boosted when that query is seen again. Would you like to preview this feature and help us test it? Do you have a suggestion on how the feature might work? Let us know by sending an email to support@blossoft.com.

New Web site goes live

It has been a long time coming: Blossom.com has finally gotten a facelift. We have upgraded both the public site and the Client site. Please bear with us as we continue to iron out any wrinkles. And if you find anything amiss, please send support a message. There are more changes to come, including improvements to the weekly Activity reports. If you have any suggestions, now is a great time to let us hear them.

Turn off logging during testing

Normally, each query run against a search index is recorded in a log file. The log file data is used to generate the periodic Search Activity Report.

A new "nolog" option has been added to keep a query out of the log. This is useful, for example, when testing the search results page. It allows tests to be run without affecting the statistics on search terms. To run a search without logging, add "/nolog" to the search URL.

Increased capacity, Lower price

The fee for a search index is computed from the number and size of the documents in the index. The recent infrastructure upgrade at Blossom increased our storage and bandwidth, so we are reducing the cost of indexing large files. Previously, each 250KB chunk of a large document was counted as one page in the index. The new pricing raises the chunk size to 500KB. Where previously a 1MB document would count as 4 pages, it will now count as 2.

The chunk size change will result in lower page counts for your search indexes (and, potentially, lower cost). The change will be reflected on your next invoice.

Infrastructure Upgrade

The upgreade of the Blossom search servers and spidering machines is complete. We are still testing functionality to make sure everything has been installed correctly. Please report any problems you find to support@blossoft.com. If you are monitoring the IP address of our spiders, you will notice some new addresses appearing in your logs.