Mobile Search Improves as Cloudant Integrates Full Text Indexing
October 16, 2012
The mobile app field is on fire right now as more businesses add Web and mobile applications, and one company is making great strides in mobile search capabilities. Cloudant has announced its cloud database service is adding full-text indexing and search powered by Apache Lucene. We learn in “Cloudant Upgrades Cloud Database Server With Integrated Text Indexing and Search Basedon Apache Lucene” on PRNewswire that Cloundant “Search 2.0” allows developers to enhance their Web and mobile apps with full-text search and analysis of documents.
The article continues:
“‘Search 2.0 enables the types of text analytics that just aren’t possible with the limited in-database search capabilities of SQL or other search systems,’ said Mike Miller, co-founder and chief scientist at Cloudant. ‘I can’t think of any application out there that wouldn’t benefit from better search. By drawing on the speed and simplicity of Lucene, we are able to provide developers with an easy, familiar way to do that for large amounts of application data that will perform at-scale for massive amounts of users.’”
While Cloudant’s moves in the mobile search field are impressive, our research indicates that accurate enterprise search is still needed in the industry. Intrafind’s enterprise search applications can answer the need to “find information securely.” The company’s iFinder is a basic solution for structured and unstructured enterprise data, allowing users to gain access the information needed in an enterprise quickly and efficiently.
Andrea Hayden, October 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Appliances Developing to Fit Expanding Enterprise Needs
October 15, 2012
Google has recently launched two new plug and play appliances with the Google Search Appliance Version 7.0 boxes. According to the article “Google Launches New Enterprise Search Appliances” on eWeek, these new tools will help users search content in large stores of data to find specific information within their enterprise. The appliances offer features such as document preview, language translation, and a smaller physical footprint and can search information from over one billion documents.
Google explains the necessity for these types of search tools in the article:
“‘You might be searching for last quarter’s sales goals, product launch materials or your colleague’s telephone number—but there isn’t one simple search box to help you find all the information you need,’ Matthew Eichner, general manager of Google’s enterprise search unit wrote in an Oct. 9 post on the Google Enterprise blog. ‘When 60 percent of corporate workers say that it’s hard to find information within their organization, something needs to change.’”
Google is attempting to make that necessary change for enterprises, but they are not the only ones making an impact on the industry. One example is Intrafind, which offers enhanced search features that include secure expert identification and semantic associations within an organization’s data repositories. With these types of high-performance enterprise search features, organizations can be sure that information is secure as well as accessible.
Andrea Hayden, October 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Get A Comprehensive Search Strategy Plan from Aspire
October 12, 2012
People tend to doubt the power of a good search application. They take it for granted that all out-of-the-box and Internet search engines are as accurate as Google (only the most powerful in the public eye). The truth of the matter is most businesses are losing business productivity, because they have not harnessed the true potential of search. Search Technologies, a leading IT company that specializes in search engine implementation, managed services, and consulting, is the innovator behind Aspire:
“Aspire is a powerful framework and application platform for acquiring both structured and unstructured data from just about any content source, processing / enriching that content, and then publishing it to the search engine or business analytics tool of your choice.”
Aspire uses a built-in indexing pipeline and propriety code maintained by Search Technologies high standards. It is based on Apache Felix, the leading open source implementation for OSGI standard. OSGI is built for Java and supported by IT companies worldwide. Aspire can gather documents from a variety of resources, including relational databases, SharePoint, file systems, and many more. The metadata is captured and then it can be enriched, combined, reformatted, or normalized to whatever the business needs before it is submitted search engines, document repositories, or business analytics applications. Aspire performs content processing that cleans and repackages data for findability.
“Almost all structured data is originally created in a tightly controlled or automated way.
By contrast, unstructured content is created interactively by individual people, and is infinitely variable in its format, style, quality and structure. Because of this, content processing techniques that were originally developed to work with structured data simply cannot cope with the unpredictability and variability of unstructured content.”
By implementing a content processing application like Aspire, unstructured content is “scrubbed,” then enriched, for better search results. Most commercial search engines do not have the same filters that weed out relevant content from the bad. The results displayed to the user are thus poor quality and are of zero to little use. They try to resolve the problem with custom coding and updates for every new data source that pops up, which is tedious. Aspire fixes tired coding problems, by using automated metadata extraction and manipulation outside the search engine.
As powerful as commercial search engines are they can often lack the refined quality one gets from a robust ISV. Aspire does not follow the same search technology path as its competitors, rather it has designed a new, original solution to provide its clients with a comprehensive search strategy plan to help improve productivity, organization, and data management.
Remember. Search Technologies is sponsoring a meet up at the October 2012 Enterprise Search Summit. More information is available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/
Iain Fletcher, October 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Content Targeting for Optimum Digital Customer Experiences
October 12, 2012
With so many possible outlets for engaging customers via digital resources, it may be difficult for companies to find the right mix of services for their digital initiatives. In “Eight Areas You’ll Invest in for Great Digital Customer Experiences” on the CRM Blog, we learn about steps brands are taking to deliver the best customer experiences with available digital resources.
A recent Forrester survey of Web content management (WCM) professionals shows that the focus is on mobile content delivery, video streaming, email tools, and content targeting.
The article elaborates on the importance of content targeting for authenticated users:
“WCM vendors have been pushing hard their vision and capabilities to help deliver customized and personalized content using their systems, and many are already providing strong capabilities in this area. For many marketers and content pros, however, the technical capacity of a WCM system to manage and deliver targeted content to customers, prospects, and partners is outstripping marketers’ ability to take advantage of it. This can be complex. You need a plan. You need people responsible for the execution of the plan. It’s an ongoing commitment.”
The challenge of content targeting and authentication is a key business information concern. A critical difference exists between enterprise information used to drive business decisions and Web content targeting that drives ads. A capable vendor, such as Intrafind, can help enterprises invest strategically to meet this challenge. Intrafind’s Topic Finder, for example, automatically filters and manages these kinds of information streams.
Andrea Hayden, October 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Training Videos: Useful but Often Not Enough
October 10, 2012
The long-awaited preview for SharePoint 2013 has arrived and SharePoint gurus are on their way to exploring the collaborative content management platform’s new potential. The new SharePoint does have new strange twists and turns that could confuse even the most experienced SharePoint developer, which is why we are so thankful for Web sites like Microsoft’s TechNet that provide official reference material. Recently, TechNet has launched a series of videos on “SharePoint 2013 Training for IT Pros:”
“Find IT pro-focused how-to training and walkthrough videos with this interactive course about SharePoint 2013 including changes and new features for search, social, plus deployment and performance/scalability.”
Each of the new videos is a training module that focuses on a different aspect of the new SharePoint 2013 deployment. There are a total of fourteen training modules and each has videos and presentations about new features and concepts. For example, Module 1 focuses on a basic overview of the 2013 version with key changes to the SharePoint 2013 Server and SharePoint Foundation 2013. All of the modules cover areas that IT professionals will have questions about, server farms, architecture, social features, customization options, upgrading from older versions, etc.
Module 7: SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Search Overview is the lesson that really caught our attention:
“Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.”
In the past, SharePoint’s out-of-the-box search solution was not the best search application. The best way to make it work was to rely on ISVs with products designed to augment and enhance SharePoint search. Generally the third-party software was a vast improvement over Microsoft. The new SharePoint search makes the same promises to fix problems from past versions and upgrade it with better features. Module 7 promises to teach about:
“Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.”
As SharePoint has moved from its old role solely as a collaborative content management platform to a more robust platform with more social features and Web tie-ins, there will be much more for the search engine to peruse.
However, in our experience, a training video is a useful adjunct to other types of professional support. For example, Comperio, a firm with deep experience in search and related activities, offers a range of services that can be tailored to meet the needs of an organization implementing SharePoint and SharePoint search. The company offers search consulting, development, application management services, and “consultants for hire.” To learn more about Comperio’s services which bridge the gap between an instructional video and hands-on implementation, we suggest you check out Comperio services at http://www.comperiosearch.com/services/.
Understanding how SharePoint 2013 has integrated a more powerful enterprise search is the first step to harnessing its new capabilities and empowering the user. Search is a key function that powers many other features on SharePoint. If users cannot find their data, then SharePoint 2013’s key purpose has been lost.
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2012
The Google Search Appliance Version 7
October 9, 2012
I learned today (October 9, 2012) that Google has upgraded the GSA to Version 7. I have not gotten my hands on a GSA. I did work through the list of enhancements. My first reaction is that Google has invested time and effort in the GSA. Some competitors will have to deal with the GSA in its present form because Google has emphasized some features which will appeal to harried information technology managers. The GSA is, according to the information available to me delivers “Google magic.” As Google’s impact across business sectors becomes more powerful, “Google magic” may be what convinces organizations to embrace an appliance which delivers “powerful simplicity.”
Among the features of Version 7 are:
- Universal search accessible from any device, including smartphones
- Entity recognition, hit clustering, and faceted search
- Ability to identify an “expert”
- More robust access controls
- Support for SharePoint
- Updated language modules and support for Google Translate
- Document previews without opening a viewer or an application like Adobe Reader
- Support for a Vivisimo-style social comment.
Google points out: “Search in the enterprise isn’t a solved problem. 60 percent of workers say it is hard to find information in their organization.” I agree.
I don’t have pricing information. There are some prices for the GB 7007 and GB 9009 available via www.gsaadvantage.gov. You will have to experiment with the search syntax. The US government prices are discounted, so the commercial lease with two or three years of support will vary.
The official Google announcement is at “Introducing the Google Search Appliance, Version 7.” Feature by feature comparisons with other enterprise search systems are tricky. Will the new version address some of the issues that licensees experienced with previous Google Search Appliances? I don’t know. I will update my analysis of the Google Search Appliance as more information becomes available.
From a competitor’s point of view, Google “magic” may be difficult to disprove.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2012
Exclusive Interview with Runar Buvik Searchdaimon
October 9, 2012
Runar Buvik, one of the founders of Searchdaimon, told Search Wizards Speak, “Searchdaimon is easy to get started with. It ships ready to run and don’t requires any consultants etc. to get you started. We also have a price advantage over comparable systems.”
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Buvik explains how the combination of robust features, a commitment to openness, and competitive pricing makes Searchdaimon a solution for many organizations.
The company was a spinoff from the information retrieval community at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Fast Search & Transfer SA, now a unit of Microsoft, was developed by engineers from NTNU. Today, Google and Microsoft have research labs in Trondheim, a city with a strong reputation in information retrieval.
Magnus Galåen and Runar Buvik started working on search and retrieval in 1998. Both studying information retrieval at NTNU. In 2002 we met investors with an interest in information retrieval, Stian Rustad and Espen Øxnes. The idea was that we would commercialize the search technology we developed. Today Searchdaimon is growing rapidly in Europe and the US.
The main features of the system are comparable to the features and functions available from HP Autonomy, Endeca, Exalead, and other aggressively marketed systems. For example, Searchdaimon offers filtering, sorting, content federation, search suggestions, spell checking of user queries, stemming and lemmatization, a graphic interface for the administrative services, logs, statistics, and the other components of a modern enterprise information retrieval system. The Searchdaimon system is an enterprise search solution that can index different content types scattered across multiple servers and storage devices. The system offers full text search to end users.
Mr. Buvik said:
The customer can use either on premises or a cloud-based approach. We designed the system to make it easy to deploy Searchdaimon ES in many ways. Most of our customers either run the system as a virtual machine on the customers VMware/ XEN/ VirtualBox servers or in a cloud.
The system is competitively priced and comes, out of the box with filters to index Web sites, RSS feeds, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Twitter, Zendesk, SuperOffice, WordPress and most types of file shares and databases.
The full text of the interview is available at http://goo.gl/xueGc.
Search Wizards Speak is the largest collection of interviews with leading professionals in search, text analytics, and content processing, There are more than 60 interviews available without charge on the ArnoldIT.com Web site. An index of the interviews is at http://goo.gl/mtOSZ.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Search Service Application for SharePoint 2013
October 9, 2012
When it comes to SharePoint, the search application has always been a tricky feature. For smaller companies, if programmed directly, it does the job perfectly, but for larger organizations a more robust solution for search was found in third-party software. Rather than turn to ISVs, these days many IT professionals are developing solutions in house to save on costs and to make a piece of software that does exactly what it needs. SharePoint Tutorial took the “do it yourself” approach for “SharePoint 2013 Create Search Service Application with PowerShell.”
The article teaches you the following:
“This guide shows you how to create a SharePoint 2013 Search Service Application using PowerShell and how this process differs from creating a SharePoint 2010 Search Service Application using PowerShell.”
PowerShell is the task automation framework from Microsoft. It uses command-line shell and other scripting languages for Windows. Its main function is to primarily allow IT professionals have greater access over the administrative function of Windows; mostly it uses cmdlets, which can be combined into scripts or executables.
The article walks the reader through steps on how to create a search service application by going through each step individually and explaining them with the use of screenshots. The coding examples are the real winner as they provide the real basis for understanding how to create the search application. Sometimes in the coding process it is easy to get lost and confused, but when a ready reference is available for help it makes the process all the easier to get through. If the coding examples, screenshots, and explanations are not enough to get you started, the article links to the SharePoint 2013 Resource Page. It is SharePoint Tutorial’s Web resource page that points to all their gathered knowledge on the new SharePoint 2013 deployment.
As SharePoint 2013 is still a new and its sea legs are still being tested and it is still being determined whether a homebuilt application to augment its out-of-the-box search capabilities. If we can follow the same pattern from other SharePoint versions, then a homebuilt, customizable solution is the way to go. The article starts IT professionals and SharePoint developers with a good starting point. The real test will come with longtime exposure to 2013, long enough to get all the bugs figured out.
Search Technologies can provide organizations worldwide with engineering and support services for SharePoint Search as well as other enterprise systems. The firm’s engineers can create PowerShell and other components to improve the performance and user satisfaction of any search and retrieval system. More information about Search Technologies is available at http://www.searchtechnologies.com/.
Iain Fletcher, Search Technologies, October 9, 2012
PS. Search Technologies is holding our first search meet up. Details are available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/ and http://goo.gl/P5oKY.
Search Technologies Announces First Search Meet Up
October 2, 2012
If you are attending the Enterprise Search Summit at the Renaissance Washington DC hotel, you will want to check out Search Technologies’ search meet up. We learned that the meet up will consist of:
an open forum where members can share search experiences, challenges, and solutions. Members will also hear from search customers who will relate their enterprise search implementation stories. The Meetup will conclude with a Q&A session and networking opportunity.
Search Technologies is a specialized IT services company dedicated to enterprise search implementation, consulting, and managed services.
Kamran Khan, CEO of Search Technologies, said:
We are very happy to sponsor the first ever network for enterprise search professionals in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Being in an area saturated with government, high-tech, aerospace, and other industries so reliant on gaining a competitive advantage through enterprise search, we expect the D.C. Enterprise Search Network to grow into a premier networking and brainstorming event. We envision robust debate on important search related issues that will hopefully infuse participants with new ideas and strategies on how to help their organization thrive.
Additional information is available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012
Comperio FRONT: Business Logic for Enterprise Search
October 2, 2012
There are many enterprise search systems. Some are available without charge; others can push beyond seven figures. Many professionals working in an organization want systems to provide information needed in the context of work. Laundry lists of hits from a key word query were a significant advance over manual inspection of documents in file folders in file cabinets.
In order to deliver information within the context of a business task, logic is needed. Many search systems provide laundry lists or categories of possible relevant documents. Without business logic, an enterprise search system can frustrate some professionals.
FRONT is available for Dot Net and Java. FRONT is compatible with SP 2013.
Comperio, a company with the motto “Search matters,” offers FRONT. According to the firm:
Comperio FRONT is the proven business logic software for state of the art search solutions. Comperio FRONT blends perfectly with your enterprise search platform to deliver quickly, with quality and top features.
The software is an outgrowth from more than eight years of experience with enterprise search and more than 100 search projects. Comperio has encapsulated that expertise into the FRONT framework.
In a nutshell, says, Jørn Ellefsen, CEO and Founder of Comperio:
Our deep experience has lead to the creation of Comperio FRONT framework, which allows search solutions to be built more quickly and with improved quality and features.
KMWorld Magazine named FRONT a trend-setting product for 2012. This is the second time that Comperio FRONT has received this recognition from KMWorld. FRONT is now a crucial part of more than 200 enterprise search solutions.
Comperio FRONT is a major source of satisfaction amongst our customers. It is a product that blends seamlessly with existing investments in search engines and end-user applications. The search middleware, or orchestration layer, leverages best practices gained from hundreds of search projects and possesses business logic visualized in graphical workflows. Whether it’s for developing a search solution as a business productivity solution or as a line of business application, Front allows our customers to benefit from faster time to market with higher quality. The flexible nature of the FRONT framework helps companies react quickly to new business opportunities and likewise to the availability of new technology. This award recognizes Comperio’s investment in, and commitment to, delivering world-class search solutions that will stand the test of time.
For more information about Comperio Front, navigate to http://goo.gl/umaO7.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012. Mr. Arnold is a paid columnist for KMWorld Magazine.
Sponsored by Augmentext
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