LBS I: Embedded Search Stubs
May 26, 2009
Editor’s Note: LBS or Little Bafflers in Search is a new feature. The idea is to answer a question that pops up in discussions about search, content processing, and text mining. The answers are designed to be broadly informative, but the answers will not be definitive. This is after all a free Web log. If you have a fix or work around to an SLB use the comments section of the Web log for the information. Please, use the Roman numeral to identify to which SLB your comment applies.
Question: My enterprise software system includes an enterprise search and retrieval function. Is this function the same as the system that I can license directly from the search vendor. If there are differences, what are they?
Answer: The addled goose wants to tell you that search stubs are * not * the full search system available from a vendor. OEM or original equipment manufacturer licenses (sometimes called embedded search deals) differ from the full-boat, bells-and-whistles system you can license from a vendor or a vendor’s authorized reseller / integrator. These stubs work within the enterprise application you licensed. So, if you license a content management system or a customer support system, that software vendor may include search, but the search system:
- Is slimmed down to meet the requirements of the third party licensing the search and content processing component; for example, certain functions are not available such as analytics, visualization, hit boosting
- Limits on what can be indexed; for example, only content within the specific file store so that other repositories are not accessible to the indexing subsystem
- Fewer connectors or filters than the full scale product so that certain content types cannot be processed.
There are other variations, but I think about these stubs as “trial versions”. I anticipate that vendors offer search systems on an original equipment manufacturer basis make an effort to balance features and performance with what the licensee will pay.
The fix? Upgrade to the full boat system. A stub is a sales lead generator in many cases.
Stephen Arnold, May 26, 2009
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