Endeca has announced IAP 6.1: Endeca, an NIE Tier 1 vendor, has launced Version 6.1of its Integrated Access Platform, with improivements in performance, scalability, and flexibility. The new version is bundled with anumber of web services access methods, so integrating search within your corporate applicaiton environment is easier than ever.

Lucid Imagination has launced with funding from two major investors, and will be providing subscription-based support for corporations who want to implemnent Lucene or Solr projects. Many of the top Lucene/Solr develeorps are working for the company, and they claim 4000 clients already. It's great to see Lucene and Solr getting more profssional support, and I expect they will be developing more and more tools to improve the oveall packaging as well!

FAST and Microsoft have announced new pricing for FAST ESP on the SharePoint environment, starting at $25K per server. This is the first announcement regarding the future of ESP, which will be sold in the future in both a SharePoint bundled server and a stand-alone product similar to the existing FAST ESP. The technology and the product will be evolving over the coming year; stay tuned!

NIE Speaking at Search Engine Meeting in Boston in April and Enterprise Search Summit in New York in May.  At both talks, the subject will be how to save money and get better search results and performance, whic most companies can do without buying new expensive softaqre. Come visit us and let's talk.