When you use the "UST SEARCH" box at the top of every page, you're performing a Google search against our site. But we control that search and its results. How is that possible?

St. Thomas has purchased what's called a Google Search Appliance. It's a server, housed in our own server room, that "crawls" our web pages and creates a database of search results.

(As an aside, the Google search appliance is, without a doubt, our most interesting-looking server.  These images aren't marketing hype; it truly does look like metalic Swiss Cheese.)

Now that we control the results that appear on our site search, we can improve on the results it returns.  By looking at popular searches, we can see what areas of the site need to be communicated more clearly and visibly -- either within the results, or outside of them.

A case study in search results

In July 2006, one of the top-10 search phrases was "blackboard". Since nearly all of our classrooms use markerboards rather than chalkboards, it seemed reasonable that these visitors were looking to use our course management system from Blackboard, Inc. At that time, a search for "blackboard" brought up piles of pages that talked about Blackboard... but none of them actually to you to Blackboard.

The solution?  A keyword-check within the Google Search Appliance that looks for "blackboard".  When visitors search for that phrase, a special highlight - almost like an advertising banner - appears at the top of the results.  The results themselves aren't affected; if you want information about Blackboard, or want to find a place to use your chalk, you can still see the same information.  But the Google Search Appliance gives us the ability to point you to what you probably wanted to see.