Request for Site Search Feature on Companion Site to Improve Resource Access

Would love to have a site search feature on the companion site. I have members trying to find a resource that was shared a while ago. It's past the Slack retention period, but it should be captured by Tightknit.

15 comments

Zach Hawtof
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Ugh yes—we want to get this one built so bad. Just so we can help prioritize, which do you want first:
1.
keyword search
2.
semantic search (little bit of AI power here)
In the meantime, Andrew Claremont have you seen our Related Discussions AI? Super powerful example of what’s possible.
Andrew Claremont
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Can't recall, you might've shown me, but I could use a refresher. 😛 Re: search -- whichever is easier to implement. I'm fine going based on keyword. E.g. the member asked for a resource posted by another specific member, so I'd start by searching for keywords (topic, member name).
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Scott Baldwin
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💯 this one is really important. Especially needs to work for those with and without a companion site. The value for many in a community is the richness of content and being able to get back to it and suface that value, working around Slack’s retention policies, would be huge.
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Zach Hawtof
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🙂 We actually have this working, but it requires a painful UX choice, which I think I need your help with. Let me make a quick Loom and get your opinions Scott Baldwin Andrew Claremont
Zach Hawtof
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Sneak peak of some new features: https://www.loom.com/share/e72d33e05bfb4e94b62527efca2dd548
Scott Baldwin
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I’m not quite clear on the search experience from the video. I was imagining the end user— a member of the community— doing a search on the companion site. So a traditional search box showing search results from all the content on the companion site. Not a chat query in Slack. Keyword search would be the start and you could expand and improve the accuracy from there. I don’t recall that end users have access to the app. Just admins or other users/groups with permissions.
Zach Hawtof
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Good to note. I needed to explain a bit better as an end user:
1.
Tightknit’s app is available to end users (we hide virtually all of App Home except for Events + Badges)
2.
But we do plan on making the app more relevant for end users in the future. In this case, it would be to enable a chat-based search inside of Slack.
3.
We would also have search on the companion site, but it seemed relevant to have it in Slack as well since it’s quicker and easier to get to from inside Slack.
I guess overall, that’s us saying we were planning on both options.
Andrew Claremont
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Yes, I think this is good enough for getting search live, versus having to install another app. (App installs are a limited resource on the Free plan, right?) My gut check says:
1.
Start with Slack chat since it's a) easy and b) functional and c) users aren't really using the Tightknit app today
2.
Figure out a fix for the chat bug while you make the app more functional for end users
3.
Fast follow on search in the companion site
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Andrew Claremont
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My assumption is that most end users won't interact with the Tightknit app anytime soon, but rather with what Tightknit makes available in the channels they're using, and via the companion site and/or embeds. So I might flip 2 and 3 depending on effort/cost of implementing the companion site search.
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Andrew Claremont
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++ For companion site search, it helps a ton with content discovery. Imagine someone comes into the companion site via search or referral. Right know they can browse, but that's about it. Adding search increases site stickiness and utility.
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Zach Hawtof
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Thank you both for the deep-dive into your brains. I’ll see if Stephen Cook and I can whip up a POC for this soon.
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Zach Hawtof
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Saturdays amirite? Scott Baldwin Andrew Claremont ++ Joel Primack Gareth Wilson since I know you’ve both asked me for this before as well.
Disclaimer: All of this will change before final launch—especially the UX and the API. But this is community-built so feel free to throw in your asks now!
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Scott Baldwin
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Good start. Maybe a few filtering options like which feed/channel to search in or include results from (could be pre or post to narrow search results); dates; people; etc. take some inspiration from Slack’s search variables?
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Joel Primack
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Filter — channels too!
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Andrew Claremont
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Zach Hawtof - Killer! Exactly what I envisioned re: search. 🙏 Looking forward to playing with the Tightknit API more when our partner cohort wraps up.
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