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NetNews – Google Search

Regular readers of this column will be aware that the ABS has been progressively improving the site search on our web site. The most recent change has been the introduction of Google. This was facilitated by an agreement between the ABS and Google under which Google provides a site specific search facility without the advertising which is normally included with search results.

As the industry leader in web search most users of the ABS web site are familiar with the use of Google and the results it presents. This allows users to concentrate on finding the ABS resources they seek without needing to learn the behaviour of a new search engine.

This arrangement with Google provides improved reliability and relevance of search results on the ABS web site. This development, combined with the free access to ABS data from December last year and the new design of the ABS web site released in January, ensures users are enjoying an unprecedented ease of access to ABS data.

Since its introduction in late March this year users have performed in excess of 1.2 million searches of the ABS web site using Google Search. This is an impressive result by any standard and shows that people are comfortable with Google and the results it provides. This is reinforced by the overwhelmingly positive feedback received regarding Google Search and the improved ABS web site.

The ABS has always gathered information on the manner in which the ABS web site is used; with the implementation of Google the ABS continues to capture and analyse this important data so that it might better understand its users' needs and continue to make further improvements to meet them. This process has shown that even with Google the most popular search terms remain unchanged:

• CPI,
• Population,
• Unemployment,
• Census, and
• Inflation