The Convera Service

Convera provides publishers with leading-edge search technology on a "software as a service" (SaaS) basis. We provide the technical infrastructure, search expertise and best practice advice. The publisher provides insight into the information needs of the target community which is used to customize the look, feel and functionality of the search experience to the needs of that community. Customizing and packaging information for a specific audience is a well established publishing skill which can be re-purposed for vertical search using the tools and infrastructure that Convera provides. The scope of the resulting vertical search can include any or all of the following:

Blogs
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's)
Government sites
Universities
Commercial organizations
Company Web sites
User Generated Content (UGC)
News sites and feeds
Trade association sites, etc.

It can also include the publisher's proprietary content and that of third parties (with the permission of the IP owner).

The resulting search experience can be integrated into one or more of the publisher's existing Web sites or used to establish a new brand or product. Optionally, Convera can host the search results (but still present under the publisher's brand).

The Convera hosted option represents the fastest and easiest way to bring a new search application to market, a process that typically takes four to six weeks.

Convera Vertical Search Service

Convera Service Description

One of the benefits of the SaaS model offered by Convera is that the publisher does not need to be familiar with the technical infrastructure used to build vertical search applications. Indeed, if Convera is hosting the search results, then the publisher needs no specific technical skills as Convera takes care of all technical aspects of the implementation.

A brief overview of the main components of the Convera search service follows.

Convera's Web Search Platform

Convera's Web search platform currently consists of more than three thousand dual-processor servers, supported by Petabytes of storage, spread for redundancy purposes across multiple Tier 1 co-hosting locations within the United States. It is capable of supporting hundreds of simultaneous vertical search applications provided under 24x7 service level agreements. Built using Convera's 15 years of search customization experience in the secure government sector, it is the first index of the Web to be designed from the ground up using semantic processing technologies to enhance the search experience.

The Publisher Control Panel (PCP)

Professional publishers continuously look to lead their communities and maintain editorial excellence and differentiation from their competitors. The same process of community leadership can be applied to vertical search using Convera's service.

Through the Publisher Control Panel (PCP), the publisher can control the look, feel and functionality of the vertical search application on a self-service basis, so it can be tuned precisely to the needs of the target audience.

The PCP has been designed to be easy to use by editorial teams with no specific knowledge of or expertise in Web search. Current features include:

Configuration of the search scope (to enable searches to default to the most authoritative information available, both public and private)
Automatic categorization of results into categories that are meaningful to the target audience
Community bookmarking
RSS feed management
Tuning the relevance ranking of results to best suit the audience

The PCP also provides the publisher with various usage and other reports.

The Parametric User Interface (PUI)

Convera is able to host the vertical search application on behalf of the publisher. Examples of Convera-hosted applications can be seen at:

www.searchmicroscopy.com (a John Wiley and Co. application)
www.madsearch.co.uk (a Centaur Media application)

The Parametric User Interface represents the easiest, lowest cost and fastest way for a publisher to bring a new vertical search application to market. Alternatively, results can be delivered in xml for integration into an existing Web site.

"Perpetual Beta"

Over time, the range of configuration options available to publishers via the PCP will grow as the Convera search service develops, and the use of the SaaS model ensures that most functional upgrades happen seamlessly.

Specialist publishers have two important advantages over general consumer Web search engines. First, they have detailed knowledge of their communities' needs and, second, they can make hard assumptions based on that knowledge because the search application is aimed exclusively at a specific community. The customization functions available via the PCP allow publishers to make maximum use of these advantages and deliver a highly differentiated search experience to their communities.

Advertising Integration

The publisher's existing ad serving solution can easily be integrated into search results pages to serve, for example, banner, run-of-site and sponsorship-style advertising.

Optionally, Convera can provide ad serving technology as a part of the search service that is specifically designed for search environments. Keyword targeting is an important mechanism for bringing together buyers and advertisers. The additional targeting dimension that search keywords provide can help publishers to increase advertising yields from search results pages, and can also extend the reach of the publisher's advertising sales into "the long tail."

Additional Services

Convera can provide a range of optional services aimed at making the vertical search application a success in terms of traffic generation and monetization. Additional services include:

Custom user interface design, development and hosting
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing services and training
Advertising sales kit development and training

< What is Vertical Search? | A Need for Vertical Search >