New search engine for nzherald.co.nz

The New Zealand Herald's web site has just released a new search service which lets its users scour the New Zealand or international web from within the site.

The technology driving the new service comes from New Zealand's largest search engine, SearchNOW.

SearchNOW has the most comprehensive index of New Zealand web pages of any search engine, local or international, with over 3.2 million pages.

The Herald's international searching is provided by Google, which is widely acknowledged as the smartest of the international search engines.

Wilson & Horton Interactive Product Manager Conrad Blind said the New Zealand and world search features are in addition to the full-text searching that allows the Herald's online readers to find and read more than 90,000 news stories dating from 1998.

SearchNOW manager Paul Foster-Nesbit said up to half of user sessions were search orientated.

"It's like adding 3.2 million pages of searchable content to your site".

The New Zealand Herald search engine offers a range of customisable search options including a family filter, one URL per domain (a key SearchNOW feature that simplifies search results) and site descriptions.