There are more than 15,000 cards in the SendOutCards catalog, and in the past, finding the right card usually involved a hunting expedition through multiple categories and pages, sometimes taking a frustratingly long time.  This was particularly the case when trying to show the product to potential customers doing a Gift Account walk through.

Now that’s all a thing of the past!  A Keyword Search functionality was unveiled to an enthusiastic audience during the 2009 SendOutCards Annual Convention, making it possible to search the entire catalog using one or more keywords describing what card elements you are looking for.

The Keyword Search field is located at the top of the page in the Card Catalog; to perform a simple keyword search, simply type a search term into the keyword field, and click on the “Search Cards” button.

A search for “Elvis” displays only Elvis Cards

It is also possible to search for cards matching multiple terms by separating the search terms with a comma and putting a check in the “Match All Keywords” box, the result will show only cards matching ALL search terms.

In the example below, we search for “red, bicycle”, using Match All Keywords, and we find that there is one card in the catalog with a red bicycle.  A note of warning: do not use the term “red bicycle” (without the comma), because it won’t work!  Keywords are single words only – if you are looking for something that consists of more than one word (e.g. red bicycle, flower pot), separate the words with commas in the search field and make sure you check the Match All Keywords box.

This search matches both “red” and “bicycle”

Finally, you can search for cards that match any of several keywords.  Just enter multiple keywords in the search field separated by commas – but this time, don’t check the “Match All Keywords” box.

The results will return any card that has at least one of the elements in your Keyword list.  Here we do a search for “lion, zebra”, and the results will show any card tagged with the word “lion” and/or “zebra”.

Here we search for “lion” and/or “zebra”

Finally, it is entirely possible that a search may turn up no cards matching a particular keyword.  It’s true that 15,000 cards is a lot of cards, but it would take a lot more to have a certainty of matching every keyword we can put in.

There are no Vikings in the Card Catalog!  Oh no!!!

When presenting to a potential customer keep this in mind, and try to anticipate keywords the customer might search before you demonstrate the feature.  Also, be prepared with a response if a search doesn’t find a matching card.

You could point out that this is the first release of a brand new feature and there will be ongoing improvements to more accurately reflect the contents of the catalog.  Also, new cards are constantly being added to the catalog, and SendOutCards is always open to suggestions and ideas for new cards.  Finally, there is Picture Plus functionality, which gives the ability to create customized cards in a matter of minutes whether you find something you like in the catalog or not!

Limitations

While the new keyword search function is extremely helpful, it does have one limitation that you should be aware of.  If you are searching and finding that the results contain cards that are seemingly unrelated to the keyword that you submitted, this is because the search is based on matching text strings rather than on matching exact terms.

So, for example, if you search for “PEA”, the results will include cards that have been tagged with “PEA”, “PEAS”, “PEAR”, “PEARL”, “PEARLS”, “PEACE” (and any other word containing the text string “PEA”).  This is also true whether the string is at the beginning, the end or somewhere in the middle of the word; a search for “LION” will return cards tagged with the word “LION”, but will also return cards tagged with the word “STALLION”.  As long as you keep this in mind, and make your search terms as specific as possible, you should still be able to greatly reduce the time it takes to find exactly the right card.

This issue has been submitted to support with a suggestion for modifications to permit a more accurate match against the keyword.