Search Service Standards

The NYU Search Service is part of the NYU IT Webmaster Support Service. NYU Search provides www.nyu.edu visitors with NYU-wide search capabilities and can provide NYU webmasters with localized search capabilities. Background: NYU’s web topology is strategically oriented into a hierarchical organization of namespace.  Unlike other universities that hew to a “subdomain-oriented” approach which results […]

The NYU Search Service is part of the NYU IT Webmaster Support Service. NYU Search provides www.nyu.edu visitors with NYU-wide search capabilities and can provide NYU webmasters with localized search capabilities.

Background:

NYU’s web topology is strategically oriented into a hierarchical organization of namespace.  Unlike other universities that hew to a “subdomain-oriented” approach which results websites ranging from “biology DOT” to “chemisty DOT” and “bursar DOT”, the NYU web strategy (in concert with the Public Affairs business unit) has been to (a) bring all central administrative units into a single topically-oriented website (e.g., rather than bursar.nyu.edu we have  https://www.nyu.edu/students/student-information-and-resources/bills-payments-and-refunds.html) and (b) tuck all school academic and administrative units under school namespaces (e.g., rather than chemistry.nyu.edu we have as.nyu.edu/chemistry).

Standards:

Basic requirements for any search solution include:

  1. Search creates its index via a public web crawl.  No direct datastore access is required, although it is a desired additional option.
  2. Search can be utilized in a headed or headless fashion (e.g., the tool provides the UX or developers can consume search results via APIs and parse and embed into their sites).
  3. Self-serve ability for a webmaster to manage their own account settings and configurations.
  4. Intuitive search results and behavior that is similar to Google.com.  Works as intended without requiring a lot of tuning.
  5. Ability to tune results (e.g., biasing, promoted terms, auto-complete, etc.) when desired.
  6. The ability to serve faceted search results based upon a variety of factors (e.g., URL, metadata, file extensions, etc.).
  7. The option to search content behind authentication and to restrict that content from public search results.
  8. Search honors established search-oriented directives (e.g., sitemaps, schema, robots.txt, follow/nofollow, etc.).
  9. Ability to provide search analytics to NYU webmasters.
  10. Must provide or enable generated web pages compliant to WCAG 2.0 accessibilty standards.

Tools:

NYU’s primary search tool:

  • Google Search Appliance (GSA)
    GSA has been in use at NYU since 2002. It is our preferred and recommended enterprise search application. NYU IT has an enterprise license for GSA to index one million items.  It is a highly-available service, with an active/active redundant architecture in New York City and upstate New York data centers.

    Update: GSA will be discontinued by Google at the end of January 2019. NYU IT has started a project to find a replacement strategy.  Requirements have been gathered in winter 2018; replacement strategy is being formulated in spring 2018.

    This standard will this be reviewed and updated in fall 2018.

Other options for local search needs (not supported by NYU IT):

Other options are available to NYU webmasters for their local search needs (e.g., self-contained to a website or NYU sub-domain):

  • Native search
    It is acceptable to use the search features that are provided natively by a CMS or available as a supported plug-in (e.g., Adobe AEM search component, Drupal search, WordPress search, etc.).     
  • Google Custom Search Engine (Google CSE)
    Google CSE is an option for websites at NYU because it is free and easy to implement via a code snippet to websites.  It, however, lacks the high-level flexibility of the Google Search Appliance.

Matrix:

Requirements Google Search Appliance Native Search Google CSE
Main purpose Enterprise search, central administrative units, schools (and their academic and administrative departments), centers and institutes Schools (and their academic and administrative departments), centers and institutes, blogs Boutique sites
Index Public crawl Public crawl or datastore search Public crawl
Implementation Headed or headless Headed Headed
Self-serve No Yes Yes
Tuneable Yes Typically yes Yes
Faceted search Yes Typically yes Yes
Search behind authentication Yes Typically yes No
Honors directives Yes Typically yes Yes
Search analytics Yes Typically yes Yes

Who can use the NYU Search Service?

Any NYU webmaster can request a use of the NYU Search Service for their NYU website via searchmaster@nyu.edu.  

How much does it cost?

At present, usage is free and covered by NYU IT. As noted above, however, GSA will be discontinued by Google at the end of January 2019. Alternatives are being investigated.  Thus, this standard will this be reviewed and updated in fall 2018.

How do I request access?

Contact searchmaster@nyu.edu to get information about NYU’s Search Service.

FAQs and other resources:

Related policies and procedures: