NZ Tech Now Empowers Dilbert Website DIlbert.com

News release 4 November 2010

New Zealand Technology Now Empowers Dilbert Website Dilbert.com

Christchurch-based SLI Systems, the international provider of on-demand, intelligent search and navigation services for e-commerce and other content-rich sites, has signed Dilbert.com
for its new Learning Search service for online publishers.

Dilbert.com is the official website for Scott Adams’ collection of Dilbert satirical comic strips about the inanities of working in large corporations and home to Dilbert, the world’s most photocopied, pinned up, downloaded, faxed and emailed comic strip

SLI Systems’ chief executive Shaun Ryan says, “Dilbert.com receives more than a million visitors a month but their previous site search didn’t make it easy for fans to find, share and license their favourite comic strips. Learning Search for Publishers lets visitors fine-tune their searches, which is particularly helpful when they are seeking the right strip for a business presentation of a website.”

Before implementing Learning Search for Publishers, the Dilbert.com site only allowed for searches by date range or character, which limited the ability of visitors to find the cartoon strips they wanted, especially since the archive contains over 20 years of Dilbert strips.

“Learning Search for Publishers is essentially a development of our hosted site search product aimed at the online publishing/digital media industry. The value proposition of a good site search in online publishing is similar to that of e-commerce: it improves the visitor experience, increases page views, and can result in more sales. For publishers, our Learning Search technology also enables them to better target any external party advertising on their site, by making the advertisements more relevant to the interests of site visitors. This capability not only increases advertising revenue but also makes for a better visitor experience,” Shaun Ryan says.

Digital media sites often struggle to attract readers to newer content, such as videos and blog posts, and revenue-generating content, such as subscriber-only articles. The vast amount of content available on many publisher sites requires visitors to sort through and refine, especially for complex material that requires exact keyword searches. Without the tools to narrow down searches and find the desired content, visitors are not likely to remain on the site or make return visits.

SLI’s Learning Search for Publishers solves these challenges, providing site search that continually ‘learns’ from visitor behaviour by tracking aggregate search queries and click-throughs, using this information to deliver results based on popularity. This creates more relevant search results based on search terms that visitors are actually using – a critical capability for online publishers. Learning Search also offers detailed reporting and analytics that provide insights on search behaviour, that help online publishers improve the searching experience for site visitors.

Learning Search for Publishers’ advanced search features, such as Auto Complete and faceted navigation, help guide visitors to the content they need. This enables publishers to have more control over how they promote content and deliver targeted advertising – for instance, the ability to create custom landing pages, and to sell advertisements tied to popular search keywords. In addition, Site Champion, SLI’s user-generated SEO solution, helps drive traffic to publisher websites by using information from visitors’ search behaviour to create high-quality landing pages.

Shaun Ryan says that since going live with Learning Search for Publishers, Dilbert.com has been getting rave reviews from visitors and tens of thousands more page views each week. “We’re excited about entering this new market and see lots of opportunity among media sites in need of better, more relevant site search.”

ENDS

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems is the developer of learning-based site search and navigation technology for corporate Internet sites, content publishers, e-commerce destinations and consumer Internet portals that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience. SLI Systems' hosted site search and user-generated SEO solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behaviour of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com, or see the company’s blog at http://blog.sli-systems.com/.

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