In this chapter, we're going to explore the role of the Search service in SharePoint Online. As organizations experience more data proliferation (documents, spreadsheets, images, databases, and other sorts of content), keeping a list of bookmarks or memorizing URLs becomes a daunting task. The role of Search in the SharePoint Online environment is to help users locate the resources they need quickly and efficiently.
SharePoint Search works by crawling lists and libraries, indexing content, and adding site columns and values to the search index. Once inside the search index, the site columns are mapped to managed properties. When users perform searches, the query is sent to the search index, which then returns the results to the search results page.
SharePoint Online search has two different search experiences: one for classic SharePoint and one for modern SharePoint. Modern search creates a more personalized search, based on the content you have access to and your previous Office 365 activity. Classic search uses the search results web part, while modern search does not. As you saw in Chapter 3, Planning and Configuring Customizations and Apps, you perform customization differently in the modern and classic search experiences.
When choosing which search experience to promote for your users, consider these factors:
- Modern search doesn't support filters or formatting for organization-specific content types or company name extraction.
- Classic search supports custom refiners and search verticals.
- Modern search lets users search across connected hub sites.
- Modern search doesn't support changing the sort order of results or metadata-based refiners.
The structure, organization, and design of your SharePoint environment will help drive which search experience works best for your users.
In this chapter, we're going to explore the following topics:
- Creating and updating search dictionaries
- Managing Query Suggestions
- Managing result sources
- Managing the search schema
- Managing Search Center settings
- Monitoring Search Usage Reports and Crawl Logs