People search got a long overdue upgrade this week. Gone is some of the clunkiness that was left over from previous search versions.  Now, instead of directly searching the domain controllers, one of our Google Mini Search Appliances indexes a separate ldap server maintained by Computer Services. Searches are then performed on this nightly index. This has resulted in both dramatically faster and much more acurate results.

Here’s a few of the upgrade highlights:

• Name and department combinations (ex: chad web)
• Spelling suggestions
• Paged search results
• The search results page now has a search box

Searches are still limited to 100 results.

In the future, we’re planning on giving students finer control over exactly what information is displayed in people search. We’re also looking into the possibility of letting faculty and staff members add items to their record (ex: official photographs, websites, etc).