Students returning to Ball State University this Spring Semester will be greeted by a more efficient university Web site search engine if the implementation process continues at its current pace.
A Google-operated search engine will replace the Autonomy Search Engine Ball State has been using for the past four years. The changes came after complaints that the current search engine was ineffective.
"I was the one who did research on it initially, and Ball State's sucked hard core, at least compared to the results Google was giving on the same searches," Graham Watson, Student Government Association secretary of information technology, said.
Estimates earlier this semester indicated signing Google as the Ball State Web site search engine could cost up to $100,000 for a two-year contract.
"I think early on we were looking at one-and-a-half or two million documents and then we went and looked at the stats and realized we didn't need that much," Junior King, associate director of University Computing Services, said.
The $40,000 cost for Google's services will cover one million pages, which King said should last Ball State through the two-year contract. At that time, UCS will reevaluate the university's needs before signing a new contract. The current search engine cost $50,000 initially and $9,000 a year, he said.
The funding will come from the UCS budget and will not affect student technology fees, King said.
Graham co-sponsored legislation passed by SGA supporting the switch to Google and is part of a team working on implementing the new search engine.
While UCS is handling the technical side of the search engine switch, a team headed by Nancy Prater, Web content coordinator, is handling the communication and integration side of the switch. The team includes nine members from departments across campus, including Graham. Their first meeting is planned for next week.
"We are getting ready to move very quickly," Prater said. "The contract was recently signed. Purchase arrangements need to be worked out with Google and once all that's done, we can actually start implementing it."
UCS has filled out a questionnaire describing the type and depth of the search desired and is waiting for Google to agree and send it back.
"Once the hardware is here from Google, it should not take very long," King said. "I know the hope is to get it in by the start of the Spring Semester. That would be a good time to do that, during break."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
