BBC Search relaunched

In case you missed it, the BBC's internal search engine relaunched today.

Apart from a lick of Barlesque paint, the main changes are:

- the addition of a 'TV and Radio programmes' module returning results from both /programmes and iPlayer
- 'BBC Best Links' are no longer badged as such (apparently people thought they were sponsored links and ignored them) - they just appear as the first results
- where one area of bbc.co.uk has multiple page matches for a search query, the second result is indented (a la Google) with a link to More results from "name of site">> (which stops the page getting swamped by results from just one area)
- the phasing out of the wider web search (although a module for results from 'Elsewhere on the Web' remains, bottom right)

Some nice example searches:

Big Cat Live
Merlin
Ian Hislop
Barack Obama
Fashion
Climate Change

This is the first in a number of incremental improvements to BBC Search over the coming months. I think it's a small but significant step forward that will help users find what they're looking for (esp. programmes) more easily and more quickly. I also think it starts to show how our search, topic and genre index pages are all part of the same continuum. Looking forward to reading the Martin Belam verdict.

Read more about the relaunch from Matt McDonnell on the BBC Internet blog.