Manage the Search Results page (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)
Applies to: FAST Search Server 2010
In a default installation, the Search Results page is called http://<ServerName>/results.aspx. The Search Results page includes several components that you can configure to improve the end-user experience.
Improve how search results are displayed
Change how search results appear in the Search Core Results Web Part
The relevant results of an end-user’s query are displayed in the Search Core Results Web Part. By configuring the properties in this Web Part, you can control how search results are displayed. You can for example:
Change the number of results that appear on a page
Change the number of characters in the summary description
Change the number of characters of the URL in search results
For more information, see Change how search results appear in the Search Core Results Web Part (SharePoint Server 2010)
Enable document previews and the Did you mean feature
The Search Core Results Web Part in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint has some additional features that enable you to enhance the search results:
Show thumbnail preview for Word documents
Show document preview for PowerPoint documents
Enable a Did you mean feature
For more information, see Configure additional features for the Search Core Results Web Part (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)
Note
For thumbnail preview and document preview to work, Windows Integrated Mode authentication (NTLM or Kerberos) must be configured on the web application of the search site.
Get search results from items containing a synonym of the search term
By adding Keywords and associating Synonyms to each keyword, you can increase recall, which is the number of search items returned related to a search. If a search includes a keyword, search items that contain the synonym are also returned, regardless of whether they contain the keyword. If a search includes a synonym for a keyword, search items that contain the related keyword are also returned. For example, if you have defined bike as keyword and associated the words bicycle and cycle as synonyms to this keyword, search items that contain the words bike and cycle are also returned when an end-user searches for bicycle.
For more information about how to add keywords and synonyms, see Tune keyword rank (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Define relevant results to be displayed towards the top of the search results list
By associating Best Bets, Visual Best Bets and Document Promotions to keywords, you can influence the search results so that results that you have identified as particularly relevant to a search term, are displayed towards the top of the search results list. When a search includes a keyword or one of its synonyms associated with a Best Bet, Visual Best Bet or Document Promotion, links to these associations are displayed in a prominent position on the Search Results page.
For information on how to add Best Bets, Visual Bet Bets or Document Promotions, see Tune keyword rank (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Display search results specific to a user group
User contexts enable targeted communication and targeted search improvements by displaying Best Bets, Visual Best Bets and Document Promotions to a specific user group only. User contexts match the properties that are defined on the user’s SharePoint User Profile page. For example, a Visual Best Bet banner can be configured to be displayed only for employees who belong to the sales organization and who are located in Germany. The different search settings - Best Bets, Visual Best Bets, Document Promotions and Site Promotions - can have one or more user contexts associated with them.
For information on how to manage user contexts, see Tune keyword rank (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Highlight search words entered by the end-user in the summary description
In the search results list, for each matching search item, a text called summary description is displayed under the title of the search item. You can enable hit highlighted summary for selected managed properties. This will dynamically generate the summary description and highlight the search words that the end-user enters. For example, if an end-user searches for system requirement and a match is found in a managed property where the hit highlighted summary is enabled, the summary description displayed for this match would be “…another important point is the system requirement specified in the manual…”.
For information about how to enable this feature, see Manage hit highlighted summary for a managed property by using Windows PowerShell (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)
Change the number of search results returned per page
If more than one page of search results is returned for a query, the Search Paging Web Part displays page numbers and forward and back arrows between the search result pages. You can edit different properties of the Search Paging Web Part, such as how many page links should be displayed, and how they are displayed.
For more information, see Change properties for the Search Paging Web Part (SharePoint Server 2010).
Add sort options to search results
End-users can sort their search results by using the Sort by menu on the Search Results page. The default sort order for search results is Relevance, which is based on the default rank profile named default. You can give end-users additional options for sorting the search results by enabling additional rank profiles or managed properties as sort options.
For information about how to add sort options to search results, see Set a rank profile as sort option on the Search Results page via the graphical user interface (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint) and Set a managed property as sort option on the Search Results page (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Use refiners to drill down in search results
Refiners enable end-users to drill down into their search results based on managed properties that are associated with the indexed search items, such as creation date, author, and company names. By using refiners, end-users can narrow their search results to only present search items like for example certain document types, created in a certain time period, authored by a given person. Refiners are displayed in the Refinement Panel Web Part.
For information about how to add refiners, see Manage refiners and refiner settings (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Display information from external sources by adding federations
By adding federated locations, you can expand the search results to also include information that exists outside your internal network. When adding federated locations, you enable queries to be sent to remote search engines and feeds, such as www.bing.com or wikipedia.com.
For information about how to add federations, see Manage federated locations (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Make it easy to find people
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides an address book-style name lookup experience that makes it easier to find people by name, title and organizational structure. This includes phonetic name matching that will return names that sound similar to what the end-user has typed in a query. It will also return all variations of common names, such as nicknames (for supported languages).
For information about how to enable and configure people search, see Manage people search (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).
Display related queries
By displaying query suggestions in the Related Queries Web Part, you can help end-users see similar queries that have successfully returned results. A query term becomes a query suggestion when the query term has returned a result that was clicked on at least six times by other users. For example, the query term FAST Search Server for SharePoint has returned a result that was clicked on over six times. When a user searches for FAST, the query suggestion FAST Search Server for SharePoint will be displayed in the Related Queries Web Part on the Search Results page. Clicking on the query suggestion will run that query.
Because query suggestions are based on end-users first searching for information and then clicking the results, it might take some time before query suggestions are displayed in your Search Center. However, you can manually create query suggestions by using Windows PowerShell.
For more information about how to use related queries and query suggestions, see Manage query suggestions (SharePoint Server 2010).