21/12-06   -   Press releases

Using Mondosoft’s BehaviorTracking with Google Mini Search can improve search success ratio by 50 percent

The AAOS can rely on information rather than hunches

Finding information and organizing it so that it is truly useful are the factors that lead to success or failure for a Web site, portal or Intranet.
AAOS added BehaviorTracking and increased the effectiveness of their Google Mini search appliance. The objective is simple: To offer the information that their visitors expect to find.

With a community consisting of more than 29,000 practitioners and patients worldwide, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has a complex information structure and the users have diverse needs.

In the 2006 revision of the Web sites, AAOS selected the Google Mini search appliance for ease of use across multiple web sites, and quickly indexed the entire content collection. As a forward-looking measure, James Ogle, Director of Information and Member Services, decided to integrate Mondosoft BehaviorTracking and gain access to search analytics data for the first time.

An add-on module, BehaviorTracking interfaces directly with the Google Mini and generates reports. From the start Ogle has learned precise information that the AAOS team has been able to act upon. “I’m very pleased with BehaviorTracking – it’s useful for its ability to analyze and it gives me quantitative information based on what people are plugging into the search engine," comments Ogle.

How do you spell fasciitis?
BehaviorTracking learns from previous user queries and automatically generates synonyms based on previous users’ search terms, which Ogle appreciates. The BehaviorMatch feature can also correlate terms, particularly valuable with medical terminology.

“The general public doesn’t know how to spell complex medical terms. We get some really nasty misspellings for people looking for ‘plantar fasciitis’ or ‘meniscus’. We can map the search engine to accept different spellings – such as “carpel" instead of “carpal" – so that results that would have been negative come up positive instead", Ogle explains.

Using real data to prioritize content projects
With real-time diagnostics based on actual searches, BehaviorTracking can verify which pages are more popular. However, AAOS can also track search terms that aren’t found and use this information to target content creation, also based on real data.
“BehaviorTracking gives us a perspective of what our users are looking for," Ogle says.
“We can see if people look for things we don’t have, then we can either rephrase the keyword, or re-direct the query. This type of information gives us the impetus to create content and allows us to prioritize our own work. We can say ‘here’s what the public is looking for,’ and decide to direct our energies there first."

Content Availability
Several different departments are responsible for content within AAOS. For example, the Education Department is responsible for the training courses and materials, the Policy and Advocacy Department is concerned with other content, while Member Services is accountable for a large volume of free information and paid-for material. By considering each departments’ content as a segment, AAOS can view the top not-found terms for each collection and ensure that the correct content is available.
With this high level of control Ogle can hone in on different subsections of the web sites to improve search results for each section. The difference?
“We rely on real information instead of hunches. In an association it takes time to build consensus. We use the information from search and BehaviorTracking to sustain and drive online purchases. Search analytics is a tool that gives leadership the information they’re seeking or ought to be seeking", Ogle states.

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About Mondosoft
Mondosoft provides technology that enables enterprises and mid-sized companies to maximize the return on investment of their knowledge aggregation and online marketing efforts. Mondosoft produces information retrieval systems and search and optimization tools that function as business intelligence systems based on the knowledge creation and retrieval process.

Mondosoft supports a large number of portal and content management applications including Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint Portal Server, Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft CMS and Microsoft Commerce Server.

The company´s product line consists of an advanced, multi-lingual search engine suite (MondoSearch™, BehaviorTracking™, InformationManager™) and a cutting-edge taxonomy toolset (Ontolica®), providing business intelligence on information creation, search, retrieval and usage of the information. Mondosoft provides a range of automatic and manual information optimization tools and modules that enable organizations to conduct retrieval and creation optimization on the corporate knowledge creation process.

Mondosoft customers include Bosch, Burger King Corporation, Coleman. Hilton Hotels, Honeywell Process Solutions, Microsoft, Overnight Transportation, People´s Bank, Shell Oil, Siemens, SimCorp, The Swiss Army, TDC, The Vatican Holy See and United Technologies. Founded in 1998, Mondosoft has dual headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and Palo Alto, California, as well as branch offices in Asia and Europe. For further information, please visit www.mondosoft.com.

About AAOS
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) provides education and practice management services for orthopaedic surgeons and allied health professionals. Founded at Northwestern University as a not-for-profit organization in 1933, the Academy has grown from a small organization serving less than 500 members to the world´s largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists, with more than 29,000 members internationally.

To support the organizations’ growing community of practitioners and patients, the Academy operates a member site (www.aaos.org) and a patient information site (www.orthoinfo.org), called “Your Orthopaedic Connection". The two sites represent an authoritative source of information on musculoskeletal conditions dedicated to raising awareness, stimulating research and improving people’s quality of life.