Have you ever noticed that different key word searches bring completely different results? This happens throughout the Internet but we noticed it most recently on the Chinese social media site RenRen. This can be a great source of frustration for both students and universities.
Students, who eagerly search for information about universities, frequently turn to RenRen to access official university sites, as well as alumni and other groups. Case Western Reserve University is also referred to as “Case,” “Case Western,” or “CWRU,” let alone the Chinese name ”凯斯西储.” Using this as the example, searching on RenRen using various key words creates a complicated situation for prospective students. The CWRU 2016 group is missed if a searcher types “Case,” “Case Western”, or even the official name ”Case Western Reserve University.” Students from the Class of 2016 will miss an important way to contact potential schoolmates and alumni. If the Chinese name for Case Western Reserve is entered an unsuccessful result will also occur. All situations mentioned above could lead to user confusion.
To establish a successful RenRen site, universities must commit time and money, always precious, and often scarce, resources. To make the investment in an attractive and informative site and then have it inaccessible for students is a shame. For instance, the University of Notre Dame has created a really nice RenRen site. However, it cannot be found by searching for “University of Notre Dame,” the official name of the university. Nothing comes up on RenRen if the search is done this way. However, if “Notre Dame University” is the search term, the site comes up immediately. We’ve contacted RenRen to correct this search glitch and devise a better plan to help users.
Interestingly these problems will not happen in a Google search even if I misspell the words, as the following picture shows. We believe there must be a similar way to improve the RenRen search.
Moreover, for universities, it would be best to search possible key words for trial after posting on the RenRen site. Make sure that your efforts are effective so users can find your page easily.
