European Search Vendor Round Up
September 16, 2009
Updated at 8 29 am, September 17, 2009, to 23 vendors
I received a call from a very energetic, quite important investment wizard from a “big” financial firm yesterday. Based in Europe, the caller was having a bad hair day, and he seemed pushy, almost angry. I couldn’t figure out why he was out of sorts and why he was calling me. I asked him. He said, “I read your Web log and you annoy me with your poor coverage of European search vendors.”
I had to admit that I was baffled. I mentioned the companies that I tracked. But he wanted me to do more. I pointed out that the Web log is a marketing vehicle and he can pay me to cover his favorite investment in search. That really set him off. He wanted me to be a journalist (whatever that meant) and provide more detailed information about European vendors. And for free.
Right.
After the call, I took a moment and went through my files to see which European vendors I have mentioned and the general impression I have of each of these companies. The table below summarizes the companies I have either profiled in my for fee studies or the companies I have mentioned in this diary / marketing Web log. You may disagree with my opinions. I know that the azure chip consultants at Gartner, Ovum, Forrester, and others certainly do. But that’s understandable. The addled geese here in Harrod’s Creek actually install systems and test them, a step that most of the azure chip crowd just don’t have time because of their exciting work to generate enough revenue to keep the lights on, advise clients, and conduct social network marketing events. Just my opinion, folks. I am entitled to those despite the wide spread belief that I should be in the Happy Geese Retirement Home.
| Vendor | Function | Opinion |
| Autonomy | Search and eDiscovery | One of the key players in content processing; good marketing |
| Bitext | Semantic components | Impressive technology |
| Brox | Open source semantic tools | Energetic, marketing centric open source play |
| Empolis GmbH | Information management and business intel | No cash tie with Attensity |
| Exalead | Next generation application platform | The leader in search and content processing technology |
| Expert System | Semantic toolkit | Works; can be tricky to get working the way the goslings want |
| Fast ESP | Enterprise search, business intelligence, and everything else | Legacy of a police investigation hangs over the core technology |
| InfoFinder | Full featured enterprise search system | my contact in Europe reports that this is a European technology. Listed customers are mostly in Norway. |
| Interse Scan Jour | SharePoint enterprise search alternative | Based in Copenhagen, the Interse system adds useful access functions to SharePoint; sold in Dec 2008 |
| Intellisearch | Enterprise search; closed US office | Basic search positioned as a one size fits all system |
| Lumur Consulting | Flax is a robust enterprise search system | I have written positively about this system. Continues to improve with each release of the open source engine. |
| Lexalytics | Sentiment analysis tools | A no cash merger with a US company and UK based Infonics; |
| Linguamatics | Content processing focused on pharma | Insists that it does not have a price list |
| Living-e AG | Information management | No cash tie with Attensity |
| Mindbreeze | Another SharePoint snap in for search | Trying hard; interface confusing to some goslings |
| Neofonie | Vertical search | Founded in the late 1990s, created Fireball.de |
| Ontoprise GmbH | Semantic search | The firm’s semantic Web infrastructure product, OntoBroker, is at Version 5.3 |
| Pertimm | Enterprise search | Now positioned as information management |
| PolySpot | Enterprise search with workflow | Now at Version 4.8, search, work flow, and faceted navigation |
| SAP Trex | Search tool in NetWeaver; works with R/3 content | Works; getting long in the tooth |
| Sinequa | Enterprise search with workflow | Now at Version 7, the system includes linguistic tools |
| Sowsoft | High speed desktop search | Excellent, lightweight desktop search |
| SurfRay | Now focused on SharePoint | Uncertain; emerging from some business uncertainties |
| Temis | Content processing and discovery | Original code and integrated components |
| Tesuji | Lucene enterprise search | Highly usable and speedy; recommended for open source installations |
Updated at 8 29 am Eastern, September 17, 2009
In my opinion, I have covered the European search and content processing sector in an okay manner for a free Web publication. If you look at the coverage I provide, you will find that the public relations poster child and amusing Gartner “quadrant” search references few of the systems in the table above.
Noteworthy to me is that Gartner does not mention some “information” that I find quite useful when assessing the stability, reliability, and integrity of a vendor’s system; for example, the shadow of alleged impropriety in Norway that falls over the Fast ESP system, the rationale for no-cash tie ups (quasi mergers) between US and European firms, and the companies that have had attempted exciting business back flips to dodge creditors or throw bloodhounds off their trail. Most search experts are not familiar with the firms in the table above. I find that unacceptable, but I am an addled goose.
So, to my Type A European phone friend, I want to reiterate that for an addled goose, I am keeping my beak in the stream of European information retrieval technology. I even have some of the proceedings of the VLDB09 conference held in Paris this summer. Even more surprising is that I have worked my way through quite a few of the papers.
Europe is in the search game. In fact, in my tests of search systems, I peg Exalead at the top of the league table. I have some data in my files that backs up that statement, an assertion some of the azure chip consultants may not be able to make.
Furthermore, Autonomy, not an American company, is one of the best marketing outfit in content processing. Autonomy has managed to stay one step ahead of Google and two steps ahead of Microsoft.
I would like to name the most tricky search outfits, but I will keep those honks to myself. I like idle attorneys. I can assert with above average confidence that central Europe and Scandinavia seem to be particularly adept when it comes to search cartwheels.
In Harrods Creek, I may be one of the few people with a sufficiently broad sweep of knowledge about the content processing industry to be able to offer that insight. Most American consultants are happy as clams with their eyes focused on the Jersey shore or San Francisco bay.
The investment wizard, like others in his clan, refused to pay me for my time. Husbanding money is one good reason the investment wizard is at the apex of his barnyard. Keep in mind that I am paddling in the mine run off muck. I am, however, a happy goose. My caller was not too chipper. Too, too bad.
Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009
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[…] into the base table in my Web log. I have added the following entries to the table that appears at this location in Beyond Search. This series is in reverse alphabetical order as a consequence of my cutting and pasting from the […]
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