Why is AI search the future of search?

The need for a precise and robust search has increased recently, especially for site searches that require greater accuracy. When users try to find a specific document (e.g., e-learning lesson), they have an exact document in mind. That’s why a company’s search solution must retrieve the exact file or document matches to be effective. If, after a few tries, the search engine doesn’t find the document the visitor needs - they’re at risk of leaving your site.

Nowadays – company search solutions are still based on keyword search, and visitors often expect more meaningful and connoting results, e.g. instant and personalized search results. This can only be achieved with an AI-powered search. Aside from the text-based search - today speech and visual searches are making trends in searches on mobile, thus opening new possibilities for AI-powered search. Gartner predicts that 70% of customer interactions will be speech-based and assistants will soon dominate the market.

AI-powered semantic search with NLP and machine learning means that the search can work independently and produce even more relevant results. The search engines tend to discover meaningful content and always are based on some sort of NLP algorithm. NLP is based on machine learning, which means that the algorithm finds patterns in the text, performing tasks that would take a human operator weeks or months. Students and attendees will highly benefit if they have the possibility to perform AI-powered content searches. 

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Why do people choose Omnisearch?

Omnisearch offers a simple and effective site search tool for all types of content – audio, video and text (including PDFs). Our focus is on educational and media portals. Students around the world benefit greatly from our tool that transcribes audio and video files into text and performs keyword-based content searches, thus getting the needed information within seconds.

Our audio transcription tool puts live audio/video lectures into written form, helping the students to catch up if they miss a lecture. For the video lectures - our tool finds exact spots in the video (where a given keyword appears), so the students can quickly navigate to the desired sequence. They can search for information based on topics or specific keywords, then rewatch that section of the lecture, as well as read the transcription. Not only will students have transcriptions of their lectures - all of the information is stored in an easily searchable database.

One of the key differentiating features of Omnisearch is that it provides an API that can be used to integrate video search into your own applications. Search API is a direct way to integrate modern search capabilities into your website or application. It allows you to expose video search functionality to your own platform (end users) directly. 

Another Omnisearch feature is that it performs a site search analysis that helps uncover the visitors’ search habits on your website. The habits include which keywords and phrases have been searched for, and also - acceptance of search suggestions, thus providing invaluable insights into users behavior.

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5 tips to utilize Omnisearch

Even for indifferent visitors – the site search functionality can provide meaningful next steps. Search tools available on your website can help the users to provoke their interest, leading them to satisfying experiences, content, and products. Since they will continue to engage with your website -  their clicks could bring you additional value.

Relevance is a very demanded concept in search engines, but it’s rather complex to measure, as there is a degree of subjectivism in the definition of relevance. In reality, many people spend too much time trying to manage their relevance. Here we present 5 main tips on how to utilize Omnisearch to improve your site search results:

1. Organize your data (pages)

Site structure refers to all the content on your website – text, images, audio, video files etc. In order to achieve good relevance you have to organize your data properly. You should implement proper site organization with folders, files and links. Having a bunch of text with all the information won’t give you a good relevance. You should split up and organize the content objects with attributes- to enable the engine to rank the matches in your preferred order.

2. Improve the UX

The search bar is the main point for users to engage with your website. Research shows that customers need not only good search but also great navigation and UX to find what they need on a website. You can improve the overall look and feel by placing the search box in plain view in a good location. All sub-pages should have the search bar in exactly the same location. Its size should be large enough to bring attention to it. The search bar should be long enough to accept an average search string. You may consider the possibility to have an expandable search box - when clicked.

3. Set up a proper Results page

The role of a good site search is to enable the users to find what they want. The results page should be easy to read, comprehensive, and predict user needs - without being crowded. The search bar should be present on the results page, so users can refine or change their query. The search terms could be highlighted within the results. A “no-results page” should be avoided; instead of showing “no results found”, you could redirect the users to products or content to help them convert. Ensure that you have a synonym library, and well-defined user profiles, so that the product pages and content can be indexed by your site search. 

4. Optimize the Relevance of thinking globally

Relevance is a long-term concern, so you should consider specific queries with relevance issues over time. You should always consider the big picture in mind, and not optimize your relevance for a specific query. Your setup should allow you to efficiently test your modifications on the whole set of query logs ensuring you won’t reduce the relevance of other queries. A proper deep testing is recommended.

5. Analyze the Search data

When a user uses the search option, they generate valuable data you can use to analyze their intentions and set up your business goals. Your site search data can help you test the quality of your search bar, unveil important keywords, and give you insights to improve conversion rates. Content-rich sites (e.g. e-learning, or media sites) can identify content gaps - topics that users are searching for, but that are missing - and fill them. You should make the important resources easier to find, and direct users to content related to what they initially searched for. 

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Omnisearch can significantly improve your online platform, and increase overall visitor satisfaction. As always, if this sounds interesting we’ll be happy to do a quick demo and help you utilize Omnisearch and deliver a next-level search experience.