What Can Meta Data Do for You?

• Enhanced Search
• Browsing by Subject
• Different "Views" of Content
• Targeted Distribution

1. Enhanced Search

Meta data boosts the effectiveness of search engines, making it easier for news staff and readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

• Highly relevant search results. When a user searches for "Middle East," GammaWare’s topical tagging helps search engines find stories likely to be about the Middle East – even if the term is inexplicit – and rank these first.

• Search results with category paths. A category path like "Business and Finance / Transport / Railway," displayed together with the article title, can focus a user’s attention on a relevant search result, even more so than a headline.

• Related articles. Users can link from an interesting search result to a list of stories related to the same concept.

• Search within category. Users can select a category and search only within that category, or perform a general search and then refine it by topic.

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2. Browsing by Subject

Meta data can link stories to a tree of subjects: Users can browse the tree, exploring the stories at each branch. Browsing by subject has two key advantages over traditional search:

• Highly intuitive. Simple search queries return many irrelevant results, but most users don’t have the time or skill to formulate more sophisticated ones. Browsing solves this problem, and allows users to reach more relevant results, because it doesn’t require users to formulate queries. The search query is implied in the path the user takes through the information hierarchy.

• Uncovers related information. When navigating a tree of topics, a user may find more than just a specific story. Other stories in the same category, or in parallel categories, may contain valuable information that is indirectly related to the object of the search. “Surfing” the tree can yield unexpected treasures.

Browsing needn’t replace searching – it can complement it for maximum efficiency. Users can browse for a relevant topic, then search within that topic, or conversely, start by searching and then click a category path to switch to the tree and continue from there.

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3. Different “Views” of Content

GammaWare supports multiple taxonomies, and this allows you to map your content in several dimensions - for example, a geographic dimension (one taxonomy) a sector dimenstion (a second taxonomy) and a thematic dimension (a third taxonomy). This way, content can be browsed by one or more dimensions, and automatically packaged for different audiences.

Geography		Sector		Topic

• Local view. If all content is classified in a subject tree and, at the same time, in a geographic tree, it is possible to only show stories relevant to the reader’s precise location – even if they aren’t in the regional edition, or if there is no regional edition.

• Personal view. Content or links displayed to a reader can be tailored to his or her personal profile, as defined in a news site’s personalization system. A user interested in tennis, physics and the Asian economy can have his homepage assembled from articles about these subjects – not merely articles containing these words.

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4. Targeted Distribution