We know that a busy workday is easier when you can find the right information without too much fuss. Whether you are looking for a colleague’s contact details, the latest HR policy, or an upcoming event, Speakap’s search engine is designed to do the heavy lifting for you.
Where can I search?
You can access the search bar at the top of your screen on Web, or by tapping the search icon in the top-right corner on Mobile.
Beyond the global search bar, you can also find specific search tools within your News, Files, and Events lists to help you filter through long lists of content.
Instant Suggestions vs. Full Search
As you begin typing, you will see a "Suggest" box pop up. It’s important to know that these two features work differently:
- Suggestions: These are quick shortcuts designed for speed. They focus on News, Polls, Events, Users, and Groups. Note that suggestions only look at titles—if your keyword is buried in the body of an article, it won’t appear here.
- Full Search: When you hit "Enter," the system runs a deep analysis across all content types (including Updates and Files) to give you the most relevant results.
How Search Decides What to Show You
When you hit "Enter," our search engine doesn't just look for your words—it tries to figure out exactly what you’re looking for. Here’s how it decides what to show you first:
- It looks at titles first: If your search word is in the title of a document, we’ll show that first. We figure if it's in the title, it’s probably what the whole article is about!
- It prioritizes what’s new: You probably need the 2025 holiday schedule, not the one from 2019. Our system automatically pushes newer posts to the top and lets older ones fade into the background.
- It values specific words: If you search for a common word like "Policy," you’ll get a lot of hits. But if you search for something specific like "Bereavement," the system knows that’s a "rare" word and will prioritize those results for you.
- Word frequency in the content: The more a word appears in a document, the higher it ranks. However, this only applies to meaningful words; common words (like "the" or "and") don't get this boost because they appear everywhere.
- It groups your words together: If you search for "Running Event," we look for results where those two words are close to each other, even if separated by a few words.
- Pro Tip: The Plus Sign (+): Using a plus sign between words (product+roadmap) acts as a "glue." It only returns results where those exact words are touching.
- Don’t worry about typos: We’ve all been in a rush and typed "Vacaton" instead of "Vacation." The system is smart enough to recognize the mistake and find the right results anyway.
Searching for partial words: Users can find results by searching for parts of a word (like "prod" for "product"), but only if that word appears in a Title. If it’s in an update, the search won't find it.