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Financial Times 'Sifts' the News
Friday, March 27, 2009
Steve Smith

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Is "searching" a better metaphor for online discovery than "search"? In the beta release of its new Newssift site, The Financial Times is trying to rethink the search engine for business information researchers. The site indexes millions of articles, charts and images across many news brands, but it is the interface that stands out. Users can put a simple keyword search term into the familiar query box but then filter that term by applying clickable terms like “Executive Structure” or places and people. The interface tracks the multiple filters a user applies to a search and suggests further search refinements. The results are novel, in that the drop-down menu can apply date filers onto the results. The sources of the results are rendered into an interactive pie chart in the left hand sidebar. Users can click on an element (newspaper, blog, etc.) to narrow the results by source type.

Many publishers have attempted to build vertical search engines around their b2b specialty, but few ever get the traction to attract large numbers from the generic search engines. The unit within Financial Times, FT Search, has come up with something truly innovative here, however. Users enjoy an experience and a level of control that is so clearly superior to a standard Google search that Newssift clearly stands out among vertical search projects. It is powered by Endeca search technologies; FT  is using contextual display advertising to finance the project rather than the traditional keyword model.
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