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Ivan54's avatar
Ivan54
Bronze Contributor
Oct 21, 2016

Different (File) Search Experiences across the O365 Suite - where is it going?

Hi,

 

I've picked up this topic, because the new SharePoint Team Sites UI finally got its own little search box in the top left corner. And again the UX and UI is a little different than across the rest of the O365 Suite.

Here are all the different UI/UXs I've come across (pretty sure there are more):

 

  • www.office.com (or portal.office.com) - new landing page with the Hello/Good Morning Firstname
    • seems to look for Name (filename)
    • sometimes finds files in private groups, sometimes it doesn't (have no idea why)
  • Office 365 Groups Files UI
    • seems to look for both, filename and title
    • works for search as you type
    • doesn't work as soon as you hit enter
  • tenantname.sharepoint.com
    • looks very similiar to the new sharepoint team site search ui
    • search as you type works as long a you search for the title
    • pressing enter (while search as you type shows no result) seems to include filenames as well
  • SharePoint TeamSite Home (new search box top left)
    • search as you type not working
    • pressing enter searches for both title and filename
  • SharePoint Classic Enterprise Search
    • classic pressing enter search
    • not able to find anything from my private groups
  • Delve (web)
    • search as you type experience only
  • Delve (Win10 Store App)
    • supports search as you and and pressing enter
    • seems to find less than the web, probably because is has trouble with filenames that include "-"
    • still, after months!, not able to search for files in private groups (after so much time - I really don't understand what the delay is here)

 

Is there anyone from the O365/SharePoint Team that could comment on where all this is going, why search experiences is not returning the same files/documents even though a normal user would expect them to?

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  • jcgonzalezmartin's avatar
    jcgonzalezmartin
    MVP
    Oct 21, 2016
    In regards of searching in private groups I think you already posted a message about private group documents not being surface in Delve so it makes sense you cannot find them in the enterprise search center. To me, the search experience usage pattern should be the same for all the experiencies you have described but not for the enterprise search center (at least until Microsoft releases a new concept for it)
    • Ivan54's avatar
      Ivan54
      Bronze Contributor
      Oct 21, 2016

      Yes, Delve Search in Private Groups has a seperate thread out there. Also the "feature" is still listed as rolling out.

      The main difference between search experience is

      • search as you type (= instant results) vs pressing enter (sometimes doesn't yield a result, even though search as you type shows some result - does someone considers this intended behaviour?)
      • Search for filename vs title (sometimes either works, sometimes just filename)
      • displayName of the searchresult (sometimes it's title, somtimes it's filename)

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