Written by Martin Belam
Over the last couple of weeks I have been evaluating the search services offered by the online editions of British newspapers. Today I want to look at the British paper most likely to feature Diana, Princess of Wales or house prices on the front page - The Daily Express.
From the homepage of the Daily Express search is offered over the web, or over the Thomson Local directory, using a radio button selection mechanism.

The search results feature a title, a dynamic excerpt of the result and a URL...and no Daily Express content.
In fact, the only thing connecting the Daily Express to the web search results is the little crusader figure at the top of the listings. There appears to be no mechanism to restrict theweb search to just pages from the Daily Express, or any advanced search features.

Summary of features of search on The Daily Express.
| Daily Express - feature summary | |
|---|---|
| Results per page | 10 |
| Article excerpt or abstract | Yes |
| Date stamp (day/month/year) | No |
| Time stamp (hours/minutes) | No |
| Article word count | No |
| Navigational or Section information | No |
| Specifies original publication | No |
| Specifies original edition | No |
| Specifies original edition page number | No |
| Results display colour-coded | No |
| Search terms highlighted in results | No |
| Relevancy score (%) | No |
| Destination URL displayed | Yes |
| Sponsored links featured in results | No |
| Site offers web search | Yes |
| Default search | Web search |
| RSS feed of search results | No |
| Advanced search options | No |
| Search by date-range | No |
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About Martin Belam
I'm an Internet consultant and writer, with 8 years experience in product management, information architecture, and user experience design for global brands like Sony, Vodafone, The Guardian and the BBC. I specialise in advising on search, widgets, RSS, online news publishing and bulk email delivery.
Martin Belam CV
email: martin.belam@currybet.net
tel: +44 (0) 7801 828718
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