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Discoverability is the degree to which something, especially a piece of content or information, can be found in a search of a file, database search, or other information system. Discoverability is a concern in library and information science, many aspects of digital media, software and web development, and in marketing, since products and services cannot be used if people cannot find it or do not understand what it can be used for.
Metadata, or "information about information", such as a book's title, a product's description, or a website's keywords, affects how discoverable something is on a database or online. Adding metadata to a product that is available online can make it easier for to find the product. For example, if a song file is made available online, making the title, band name, genre, year of release, and other pertinent information available in connection with this song means the file can be retrieved more easily. The organization of information through the implementation of alphabetical structures or the integration of content into exemplifies strategies employed to enhance the discoverability of information.
The concept of discoverability, while related to but distinct from accessibility and usability, which are other qualities that affect the usefulness of a piece of information, is a critical aspect of information retrieval.
Apart from increasing the reuse potential of the services, discoverability is also required to avoid development of solution logic that is already contained in an existing service. To design services that are not only discoverable but also provide interpretable information about their capabilities, the service discoverability principle provides guidelines that could be applied during the service-oriented analysis phase of the service delivery process.
When users interact with online content, typically determine what types of content the user is interested in, and then a computer program suggests "more like this", which is other content that the user may be interested in. Different websites and systems have different algorithms, but one approach, used by Amazon (company) for its online store, is to indicate to a user: "customers who bought x also bought y" (affinity analysis, collaborative filtering). This example is oriented around online purchasing behaviour, but an algorithm could also be programmed to provide suggestions based on other factors (e.g., searching, viewing, etc.).
Discoverability is typically referred to in connection with . A highly "discoverable" piece of content would appear at the top, or near the top of a user's search results. A related concept is the role of "recommendation engines", which give a user recommendations based on his/her previous online activity. Discoverability applies to computers and devices that can access the Internet, including various console video game systems and such as tablets and smartphones. When producers make an effort to promote content (e.g., a TV show, film, song, or video game), they can use traditional marketing (, , ) and digital ads (, pre-roll ads, etc.), or a mix of traditional and digital marketing.
Even before the user's intervention by searching for a certain content or type of content, discoverability is the prime factor which contributes to whether a piece of audiovisual content will be likely to be found in the various digital modes of content consumption. As of 2017, modes of searching include looking on Netflix for movies, Spotify for music, Audible for audio books, etc., although the concept can also more generally be applied to content found on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and other websites. It involves more than a content's mere presence on a given platform; it can involve associating this content with "keywords" (tags), search algorithms, positioning within different categories, metadata, etc. Thus, discoverability enables as much as it promotes. For audiovisual content broadcast or streamed on digital media using the Internet, discoverability includes the underlying concepts of information science and programming architecture, which are at the very foundation of the search for a specific product, information or content. Reputationpros
The positional advantages or disadvantages of various locations depend on different cultures and languages (e.g., left to right vs. right to left). Some locations have become established, such as having toolbars at the top of a screen or webpage. Some designers have argued that commonly used features (e.g., a print button) should be much more visually prominent than very rarely used features. Some features cannot be seen, but there is a convention that if the user places the mouse cursor in a certain area, then a toolbar or function option will become visible. In general, because of the smaller screen of mobile devices, controls are often not placed right in the centre of the screen, because that is where the user views content or text.
Some organizations try to increase the discoverability of a certain feature by adding animation, such as a moving "click here" icon. As of 2017, the addition of motion sensors and geotracking to mobile devices has made webpage design for discoverability more complex, because smartphones and tablets are typically capable of having many more inputs from the user than a 1980s era desktop, including "swiping" the touchscreen, touching images on the screen, or tilting the device. One of the challenges in webpage and app design is that the degree of sophistication and experience of users with navigating in the webpage or app environment varies a great deal, from individuals who are new to using these applications at one extreme to experienced computer users.
To make the service meta-data accessible to interested parties, it must be centrally accessible. This could either be done by publishing the service-meta to a dedicated 'service registry'Reddy, et al. Evaluating legacy assets in the context of migration to SOA. pp 58. Date accessed: 20 April 2010. or by simply placing this information in a 'shared directory'.Dennis Wisnosky. Principles and Patterns at the U.S. Department of Defense. Date Accessed: 20 April 2010. In case of a 'service registry', the repository can also be used to include QoS, SLA and the current state of a service..Vinod Sarma, Srinivas Rao Bhagavatula. Freeway patterns for SOA systems. Date accessed: 28 April 2010.
For general items, the data that might be used to categorize them may include:
This principle is best applied during the service-oriented analysis phase as during this time, all the details about the service's purpose and functionality are available. Although most of the service design principles support each other in a positive manner, however, in case of service abstraction and service discoverability principle, there exists an inversely proportional relationship. This is because as more and more details about the service are hidden away from the service consumers, less discoverable information is available for discovering the service. This could be addressed by carefully recording the service meta-information so that the inner workings of the service are not documented within this meta-information.
Algorithms have been called “”, because the factors used by the leading websites in their algorithms are typically proprietary information which is not released to the public. While a number of search engine optimization (SEO) firms offer the services of attempting to increase the ranking of a client's web content or website, these SEO firms do not typically know the exact algorithms used by Google and Facebook. can only access 26% of new online content "...by recrawling a constant fraction of the entire web". (2026). 9781595936547 ISBN 9781595936547
One concern raised with the increasing role of algorithms in search engines and databases is the creation of . To give a practical example, if a person searches for comedy movies online, a search engine algorithm may start mainly recommending comedies to this user, and not showing him or her the range of other films (e.g., drama, documentary, etc.). On the positive side, if this person only likes comedy films, then this restricted "filter" will reduce the information load of scanning through vast numbers of films. However, various cultural stakeholders have raised concerns about how these filter algorithms may restrict the diversity of material that is discoverable to users. Concerns about the dangers of "filter bubbles" have been raised in regards to online news services, which provide types of news, news sources, or topics to a user based on his/her previous online activities. Thus a person who has previously searched for Fox TV content will mainly be shown more Fox TV content and a person who has previously searched for PBS content will be shown more PBS search results, and so on. This could lead to news readers becoming only aware of a certain news source's viewpoints.
The search behaviour of video content viewers has changed a great deal with increasing popularity of video sharing websites and video streaming. Whereas a typical TV show consumer of the 1980s would read a print edition of TV Guide to find out what shows were on, or click from channel to channel ("channel surfing") to see if any shows appealed to them, in the 2010s, video content consumers are increasingly watching on screens (either , tablet computer screens or ), that have a computerized search function and often automated algorithm-created suggestions for the viewer. With this search function, a user can enter the name of a TV show, producer, actor, screenwriter or genre to help them find content of interest to them. If the user is using a search engine on a smart device, this device may transmit information about the user's preferences and previous online searches to the website. Furthermore, in the 1980s, the type or brand of television a user was watching on did not affect his/her viewing habits. However, a person searching for TV shows in the 2010s on different brands of computerized will probably get different search results for the same search term.
In the case that a user does like a certain online product or service, the discoverability has to be repeatable. If the user cannot find the product or service on a subsequent search, she or he may no longer look for this product/service, and instead shift to a substitute that is easily and reliably findable. It is not enough to make the online product or service discoverable for only a short period, unless the goal is only to create “viral content" as part of a short-term marketing campaign.
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