New Idea Engineering at Enterprise Search Summit

NIE returns to Enterprise Search Summit in May. We are once again coming to New York for ESS, where we'll be speaking and exhibiting.

Thus year, reflecting the current state of the market, we'll be giving a talk about ways to get more life out of your existing search engine; or, if you are going to buy something new, how you can get the maximum value for the least amount of money. Feel free to come visit if you're in New York May 12-13.

Attivio sponsors SearchDev Dinner

We're happy to announce that search technology company Attivio will be the sponsor of this year's searchdev.org dinner in conjunction with the Enterprise Search Summit. The dinner, on Monday May 11th, will provide an opportunity for show attendees, or simply for search professional in the New York area, to gather and socialize, as well as to learn about Attivio's products in a relaxed and  casual setting. RSVP to searchdev@ideaeng.com to confirm your spot!

New Google Connector for SharePoint

Google has announced the impending availability of a new generation of connectors for Microsoft SharePoint.

The new release will include an improved architecture and consolidate the crawling of both SharePoint content and meta-data into the GSA, rather than splitting the functionality between connector and GSA. The new connector architecture can also better serve content from multiple SharePoint sites. The 2.0 release should be available by the end of the month. If you use the GSA and SharePoint and want to learn more, call us at 408-446-3460 or email sales@ideaeng.com.

ISYS releases new set of document filters

ISYS has announced that it is getting into the document filter business. The Australian search technology company has announced ISYS File Readers, a set of document filters for extracting text and meta-data from over 200 different file formats. Their product will use the readers, of course, but they are also 
marketing their solution to companies that are using open source search like Lucene and Solr, who often need high quality supported document filters to successfully implement open source search.

This is a great move for ISYS, since the other leading document filter suppliers Oracle, Autonomy, and Microsoft have not shown any inclination to market directly to low-volume customers, nor have they been  inclined to support open source products.

DBSight new database indexing power for Lucene

We've recently discovered an interesting tool for search-enabling relational database content using Lucene/Solr. DBSight has an  interesting online demo http://www.dbsight.comand a free download for  evaluation.

The product includes an interesting and easy-to-use front end to index and your relational content, and companies looking for search solution for database content may find DBSight useful.

Ultraseek goes IDOL

The popular Ultraseek engine, now part of Autonomy, is having its underlying search technology replaced by the  powerful Autonomy IDOL engine. This puts the flexible and easy-to-use front end of Ultraseek onto IDOL, which means that Autonomy now has a friendly front-end that end users can manage.

It also provides users with the option of licensing the additional capabilities available in IDOL, which means the Ultraseek engine can now  expand to all of the advanced search capabilities offered by IDOL.

U Rank from Microsoft

Have a look at "An experiment on search and social networking by Microsoft Research" called U Rank (http://urank.viveri.com/). Or Viveri (http://viveri.com/). Whatever you call it, it's an interesting experiment in web-based search that makes great sense in the enterprise: you get to alter the default result list order - something Google features as well - but presumably Microsoft lets ranking and placement from your friends impact the result ordering as well - giving you a look at social search.

The impact in the corporation will be powerful. Vivisimo talks about 'social tagging; in search, but if Microsoft Research can roll this back into future versions of FAST ESP, it seems that companies could benefit from feedback provided by others in your department or group, and improve the overall sociability of search.

By the way, be careful with the URL: if you try www.urank.com, you'll find yourself on a Red Hat site!