Database Ranking Includes Search Engines
November 24, 2013
I read “DB-Engines Ranking.” What struck me is that search engines were included in the list. More remarkable, some of the search systems are not data management systems at all. One data management system bills itself as a search engine. I was surprised to find the Google Search Appliance listed. The system is expensive and garners only basic support from the “search experts” at Google.
Let me highlight the search related notes I made as I worked through the list of 171 systems.
- At position 12 is Solr. This is the open source faceted search engine that can be downloaded and installed—usually.
- At position 21d is ElasticSearch. The person who created Compass whipped up ElasticSearch and made some changes to enhance system performance. With $39 million in venture funding, ElasticSearch can be many things, but for me the company does search and retrieval.
- At position 27 is Sphinx Search. This system makes it easy to retrieve information from MySQL and some other databases without writing formal SQL queries.
- At position 38, MarkLogic is the polymath among the group. The company bills itself as enterprise search, XML data management system, and business intelligence vendor. The company also enjoys some notoriety due to its contributions to the exceptional Healthcare.gov project.
- In position 44 is the Google Search Appliance. The system is among the most expensive appliances I have examined. Is the GSA an end of life project? Is the GSA a database system? My view is that it is a somewhat limited way to get Google style results for users who see Google as the champion in the search derby.
- At position 104 is Xapian. Again, I don’t think of Xapian and its enthusiastic supporters as card carrying members of the database society. For me, Xapian evokes thoughts of Flax.
- At position 124 is CloudSearch. Amazon’s somewhat old fashioned search system. Frankly I think of Amazon as more of a database services outfit than a search outfit.
- At position 127 is the end of life Compass Search. This was the precursor to ElasticSearch. There are those who are happy with an old school open source solution. Good for them.
- At position 149 is SearchBlox. Now SearchBlox uses ElasticSearch. Interesting?
- At position 163 is SRCH2. This vendor is one that has some organizational challenges. The focus of the company seems to be shifting to mobile search.
Quite an eclectic list. Some of the systems mentioned are search engines; for example, Basho Riak. In terms of list “points”, ElasticSearch looks like the big winner. Shay Bannon made the list with Compass. ElasticSearch is moving up the charts. SearchBlox uses ElasticSearch in its product. What happened to LucidWorks and reflexive search?
Which of these systems would you select for data management? My thought is that one should check out the software before taking a list at face value.
The confusion about search is evident in this list. No wonder the LinkedIn discussion groups want to do surveys to figure out what search means.
Stephen E Arnold
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You might be interested by the Algolia full-text search engine that provide a ranking optimized for database records. They have redeveloped a specific ranking and they have provided some information on this blog post comment: http://nosql.mypopescu.com/post/62315261595/full-text-search-in-your-database-algolia-vs
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