Meet LINE Search

LINE Messenger produces huge amounts of data, and LINE Search helps users find just what they need

2022.05.19

LINE Search

LINE Search provides you with the information you want based on the rich expanse of data from within LINE Messenger. Using the special UX/UI connecting chat and search, LINE offers search options from the convenience of basic portal search to voice search, search in chat rooms, and the experience of sharing search results in chat rooms.

Search results offer real-time news and weather, as well as lifestyle-related topics like nearby restaurants, shopping, people, videos, and music, in a format optimized for each type of information. In addition, as LINE merges with a major Japanese search portal company, we expect our search engine capabilities to stengthen even further.

Design Point

  1. Diverse but consistent UI:
    Breaking away from the image of dry and conventional search services, we have implemented UX/UI that combines familiar usability and aesthetic design.

  2. Special UX/UI connecting chat and search:
    You can quickly search, see clear results, and share with your friends in a chat room, all in one smooth flow.

  3. Smart notification with high-quality search results: 
    You can receive high-quality search results through your messenger, such checking the weather each morning, the latest information about your favorite singers, or the real-time status of COVID-19.

 

Design Background

LINE announced the integrated search service "LINE Search" at the 2019 business strategy presentation, declaring it to be a future flagship service. With the management integration with a major Japanese search portal company that was ongoing at the time, we were able to synergize our search capabilities, becoming a significant force in the Japan search market quite quickly. Based on LINE's experience in the Japanese market and our 92 million MAU there, we aimed to realize LINE's ultimate goal of "Closing the Distance." 

Our users have said that one of their big needs is to be able to find the information faster and more accurately, and to effectively share the results. To meet these demands, we set the goal of establishing a virtuous cycle of searching and sharing by strengthening the search accessibility of both the portal search and in-chat search.

At times when there is a great need for real-time information — such as during the Olympics and when COVID-19 first broke out — the role of search is to enable users to quickly check information that updates frequently. LINE Search created a template called Knowledge Base for customized topics so that they could be released quickly at any time. In addition, we have solidified the synergy between messenger and search by providing high-quality search results for events such as the Olympics and Japan's nationwide singing competition, which are seasonal topics easy discussed in chatrooms.

LINE messenger is a "super-app", offering a wide range of services. LINE Search can leverage this position to work with LINE's family of services to provide richer search results. Users can also the journey away from messenger, search on the portal and come back within a single platform, LINE. This is LINE's new value, differentiated from its competitors.

Goal of LINE Search

As LINE services have grown, users having become more active, so we have a long-term goal of providing more personalized search results through regular usability tracking. LINE Search is expected to grow much bigger in the future, given its scalability within the app and upcoming features that have not yet been released.

    Written by

    Search Product Design