Back in October we blogged about problems with the new Global Search functionality in Salesforce Winter ’11. At the time we said that Salesforce Global Search was broken. See: Is Salesforce Global Search Broken
Now we’re glad to report that Salesforce has fixed Global Search.
Here is the message Salseforce sent out today regarding this issue:
At salesforce.com, we are committed to transparency and responsiveness to our user community and great user experiences with our products. With that in mind, we are making some enhancements to Global Search to provide you with an improved search experience.
In Winter ‘11 we introduced Global Search with the goal of making search universally accessible. We wanted to not only make search easier to locate, but to broaden the scope of what was searched through a simple interface. Additionally, we redesigned the search results page to highlight Chatter feed results to discover and promote the collaboration happening within Chatter.
However, it’s clear the expansion has come at the expense of usability for some users. Based on your feedback, we are releasing changes to the behavior of Global Search to address these usability issues.
What is the change?
We received your feedback and are making key changes to improve your experience using Global Search. There are four areas of enhancements to Global Search:
1. Easy access to Search Options – The Search Options link is now always present right under the search box. Search Options is now one click away to to access the Search Options pop-up, which allows users to choose which objects and options they want for their search.
2. Sticky Search Options – We are making search more customized to users. When users choose objects and options for their searches, we’ll save their selections until they change them again.
3. Suggested Search Options – We are helping users eliminate the information they don’t need in search results by suggesting objects they are likely to want to search. When viewing suggested options, users will also have a chance to modify selections as they wish. Once users search using these suggestions and any modifications they have made, we will save these options and they won’t see the suggestions again.
4. Partial Match Search Hint – We are helping users do partial match searches using wildcards. When typing their search into the search box, users will see a hint on how to do a partial word search by adding a wildcard (*) to their search in the dropdown.
How will this change impact me?
These enhancements are designed to work for all users of Global Search and will be automatically available to all organizations with Chatter and Global Search enabled. We have determined that you are using Global Search, so you will be receiving these enhancements.
When is this change taking effect?
The enhancements are being targeted for the week of November 29.
What action must I take?
No activation or action is required – we will make these enhancements available to all customers automatically.
How can I get more information?
For more information on Global Search, please review the updated help topics. If you have further questions, please contact Customer Support.
One of the reasons why we’re excited about working with Salesforce.com and proud to be a Salesforce.com registered consulting partner is that that they listen to their user base and respond quickly when appropriate. The Global Search issue is a great example of this.
