For sites such Amazon or Netflix, ‘related products’ searches have become reliable and useful. On my Shopify platform it was very difficult to implement a link to “related slides”. Now that I have acquired the required coding skills, I looked around at other out-of-the-box search solutions (even with the help of some suggestions by blog readers), but I have not found something that could work for me in SlideMagic 2.0.
I think a good search algorithm is absolutely crucial for a slide template engine. Simplistic tag searches are not useful. “Here is another slide about "‘strategy’). You need to take into account how a slide looks, what message it should carry, what audience it is relevant for, etc. etc. And then in addition, bring in how popular a slide is.
I am breaking my head on finding a good way to index slides and make them accessible in search, both on the web interface, but more importantly inside the desktop app.
Today, I completed a very first version to get the basics working. Still far from perfect, but already better than the Shopify site. Next up is a refinement of the tags, the tagging structure, and the user interface. And of course: getting the performance right.
This has not been incorporated in the desktop app yet, I am using the web site as a playground for ideas at the moment.
Work in progress.