Search
1. What it is
Search is the results page behind the search box at the top of every page. It
looks across the MangoApps apps a person can already open — policies, SOPs,
wikis, files, people, shifts, tasks, forms and the rest — and groups what it
finds by where it lives. On the Enterprise plan it also reaches the systems
your company keeps outside MangoApps.
The page answers in three ways at once. A live answer comes straight from
records when the words name one fact (“pto balance”, “who’s on call”). An AI
overview summarises what your documents say, with citations. The ranked
results sit underneath.
- Enablement: every paid plan includes Search, and nobody has to turn it on
for a search to run. Anyone signed in gets the search box and the results
page. What the licence governs is the app’s own pages — Saved searches, My
connections and the admin pages — and whether Search appears in the side
navigation. - What it is not: Search is not Ask AI. Search answers the words someone
typed and hands back rows they can open; Ask AI is a conversation. The two
are wired together — the results page has an “Ask AI about…” button, and Ask
AI hands back narrower searches as chips — but they are separate apps with
separate switches. - Not an index: Search never copies your external systems into MangoApps.
Every external search runs live, as the person searching, and nothing is
copied, indexed or cached.
2. Standing it up
- Go to Search → Settings and read Areas that feed search. Ninety
areas are listed under five headings — People & organization, Content &
knowledge, Work & operations, Communication, Platform & personal — and every
one starts on. Turn an area off only when you want it out of results
company-wide; it stays findable inside its own app. - Teach Search your company’s shorthand at Search → Synonyms. One click
adds a starter set covering the abbreviations most companies use (PTO, OOO,
WFH, SOP and similar). You can also import a list as a file, or export what
you have. - Pin the answers you already know people miss at Search → Promoted
results. A promoted result becomes the first row for the words you choose
and is labelled Promoted. - On the Enterprise plan, register external systems at Search → Sources —
one entry per system instance, so a subsidiary’s own SharePoint tenant sits
beside the parent company’s. Use Test on the source before you tell
anyone about it. - Tell your people to connect. Each person connects their own account once at
Search → My connections, and from then on their searches also ask that
system, as them. - Confirm it worked: run a search yourself, then check Search → Analytics
a few days later. If you have no traffic yet, Load Sample Data at the
bottom of Search → Settings fills Analytics with a few weeks of
realistic activity so you can see the page working.
Things that silently do nothing until a second thing is also set:
- A registered source with nobody connected returns nothing. Registering a
source is the admin half; each person still has to connect their own account.
The Sources page shows how many people have connected to each one. - The AI overview needs three switches on, not one: Search’s own Show an
AI overview above results, the Ask AI app published to that person, and Ask
AI’s own company-knowledge switch. Turning any of them off removes the card. - The Wikis, Libraries and Drive rows on the settings page are the same
switch those apps show in their own settings. There is one switch, shown in
two places; turning it off in either place turns it off in both. - The My connections tab only appears once an admin has registered at least
one source — and only on the Enterprise plan.
3. How it fits together
Areas and sections
An area is what you switch on and off: one app or platform surface, listed
on the settings page. A section is what a person sees: one group of results
on the page, headed by where the rows live.
Worked example. Leave is a single area on the settings page. Someone searching
holiday sees separate groups on the results page for the holiday calendar,
the leave policy and the holiday list — three sections, one area. Switching the
Leave area off removes all of them at once.
A live answer and an AI overview are different things
A live answer is a fact read from live records — a leave balance, the next
shift, who is on call, the next holiday, whether the person is clocked in, the
manager’s name, open tasks — shown as a card with the button to act on it. No
AI is involved, and it is only as right as the records behind it.
An AI overview is a short written summary of what company documents say,
with numbered citations back to those documents. It loads a moment after the
rest of the page, so results never wait for it. When a live answer already
answers the question, the overview is not shown — one answer is enough.
Best match, Top results, and the sections
Best match is the single strongest row across every section, shown as a
card, and only when the match is confident enough to earn it. Top results
is the short ranked list under it, drawn from across the sections so one noisy
area cannot fill it. Every section still renders in full below.
Ranking only reorders rows a person could already open. It never widens what
someone sees. Each ranked row can carry a small chip saying why it ranks —
Yours, You acknowledged this, Your team, Your location, Promoted, People here
open this, Meaning match, Outdated.
Results from a connected external system are ranked alongside everything else
and can appear in Top results. A bare title from an external system is never
the Best match card, because there is no text behind it to judge.
Meaning matches
A meaning match is a row found because it means the same thing, not because
the words matched — a Spanish query finding an English SOP, or “time off rules”
finding the leave policy. Meaning matches are ranked with everything else and
labelled; they are never a section of their own.
Synonyms and promoted results do different jobs
A synonym widens what a query matches, everywhere: teach Search that FY
means Fiscal Year and every area starts matching both. A promoted result
changes nothing about matching — it pins one specific page or link to the top
for the words you choose. Reach for a synonym when people use a different word
for the same thing; reach for a promotion when the right page exists but keeps
losing.
Sources and connections
A source is the company’s registration of one external system, created by
an admin: its name, which system it is, and the credentials to reach it. A
connection is one person’s own sign-in to that source. Sources hold no
personal sign-ins; connections hold no company configuration. Disconnecting
removes one person’s sign-in. Deleting a source removes everyone’s.
Saved searches and recent searches
A saved search is kept on the server: the query, its filters, a name, and
optionally a daily or weekly alert when something new matches. A recent
search is just the last few things typed on that device, shown under the
search box — never shared, never aggregated, and never turned into a company
“trending searches” list.
Search as
Search as lets an admin see what one named person would find. It shows
titles by area and nothing more — private areas such as notes, HR files and pay
are counted but never listed, and an admin cannot act on anything from it.
Every use is recorded.
4. Running it
Fix the searches that find nothing
- Open Search → Analytics and pick a period.
- Read the zero-result list — the searches people ran that returned nothing.
- From any row, choose Add synonym… (prefilled with the nearest search
that did work) or Promote… (prefilled with the words that failed). - Watch the trend chart; the same search should stop appearing.
You do not have to remember to visit this page. Once a week, admins get an
Inbox notice listing the searches people keep running and opening nothing for.
Check what one person can find
- Open Search → Search as.
- Pick the person and type the search they are asking about.
- Read the areas that returned something. If the row they expected is missing,
the cause is usually an area switched off, or a permission in the owning app.
Keep an external source working
Each source shows its last test result and how many people have connected.
Admins get an Inbox notice when a source starts failing for everyone, which
usually means a rotated secret or a changed host — a single person’s expired
sign-in never counts against the source. Disabling a source hides it everywhere
but keeps everyone’s sign-ins, so re-enabling is instant.
Curate promoted results over time
A promoted result can have a start and end date, so a seasonal page can be
pinned for open enrolment and stand down by itself. Any promotion can also be
paused and resumed without deleting it.
5. Settings
All of these live at Search → Settings, which admins and Search app admins
can open.
| Setting | Where | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Areas that feed search | Search → Settings | All on | Switches one app or surface out of results for everyone. It stays findable inside its own app. Reset to defaults turns them all back on. |
| Include archived content | Search → Settings | Off | Archived wikis, workspaces and direct message threads appear, marked Archived, and only to people who could still open them. |
| Include deactivated people | Search → Settings | Off | Former employees appear in People results, marked Deactivated. “People who can help” stays current staff only. |
| Exclude file types from results | Search → Settings | Nothing excluded | Keeps Images, Video, Audio, Archives or Design files out of file results. Each stays findable inside its own app. |
| Show an AI overview above results | Search → Settings | On | Removes the AI summary card without touching Ask AI itself. |
| Skip content with an open governance finding | Search → Settings | Off | The overview will not cite a page, policy, file or wiki that Content Governance has flagged — stale, ownerless, broken links, review overdue — until the finding is resolved. |
| Keep search activity for | Search → Settings | 90 days | How long search terms and result clicks are kept to power Analytics and ranking. 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year. Results themselves are never stored. |
| Let Search app admins use “Search as” | Search → Settings | Off | Hands Search as — reading what one named colleague would find — to delegated Search app admins. Business admins always have it. |
| Enable the Search Admin Agent in Ask AI | Search → Settings | Off | Lets admins ask Ask AI to report on search and make three confirmed changes: add a synonym, promote a result, switch an area in or out. Off until an admin turns it on. |
| Route Search admin notices to this group | Search → Settings | Every business administrator | Sends the failing-source alert and the weekly nudge to a named group instead of the whole administrator roster. Search app admins are always kept. |
| Send the weekly zero-click nudge | Search → Settings | On | Monday morning Inbox notice listing searches at least two people ran five or more times in the last 30 days and opened nothing for. This switch is the only way to stop it — it has no per-person off switch. |
The Wikis, Libraries and Drive rows in Areas that feed search are shared
with those apps’ own settings pages, and are marked as such. Everything else on
this page belongs to Search alone.
6. More help
- Search FAQ — filters, limits, external
sources, and what to do when a search does not find what someone expected - Ask AI — the assistant answers Search questions from these articles