Lookeen Desktop Search: Exclusive Interview Reveals Lucene as a Personal Search Solution
March 17, 2015
Axonic’s enterprise-centric search products eliminate most, if not all, of the problems a Windows user encounters when trying to locate related information produced by different applications on a desktop computer. Email and other types of information are findable with a few keystrokes.
When I was in Germany in June 2014, I learned about Lookeen, a desktop search product that was built on Lucene. The idea was to tap the power of Lucene to put content on a user’s computer at one’s fingertips. Imagine working in Outlook, reading a message, and seeing a reference to a PowerPoint on the user’s external storage device. Lookeen allows access to the content from within Outlook. Now the company is releasing a commercial version of its desktop search product that promises to be a game changer on the desktop and in the enterprise. The company offers robust functionality at a very attractive price point.
The role of Lucene and other technical innovations in the high-performance software appears in an exclusive interview with Lookeen’s chief operating officer. You can find the interview at http://bit.ly/1LizbkQ.
The Lookeen interface is intuitive. No training is required to install the Lucene-based system nor to use it for simple or complex information retrieval tasks. Image used with the permission of Axonic GmbH.
Lookeen is a product developed by Axonic, a software and services firm located in Karlsruhe, Germany, in Rhine Valley, a short distance from Stuttgart. Axonic is one of the leading software development and services firms for Outlook and Exchange Server search technologies in Europe. The company specializes in enterprise applications and has a core competency in Microsoft technologies.
I wanted more detail about Lookeen’s approach to desktop search. In an exclusive interview, Peter Oehler, COO, revealed a its breakthrough approach to desktop search. The company’s Lookeen software gives Windows users the industry-leading search technology tuned for the Microsoft environment. Outlook email, PowerPoint decks, Word documents and other common file types are instantly findable.
Peter Oehler said:
We’ve utilized Lucene’s extensive query syntax to enable users to use familiar Google-like Boolean search, as well as wildcard, proximity, and keyword matching. The introduction of more search strings and filter features enable users to narrow down searches in an easy and intuitive way, and more proficient searchers can access the best of Lucene’s query syntax.
He added:
Lucene is a very good, widely used open source search system. Many of the innovations we’ve developed on top of the Lucene engine stem directly from our extensive experience with Outlook. For example, the Lookeen context menu allows a user to open, reply to, forward, move and summarize emails and topics, all from within Lookeen.
What sets Lookeen apart from proprietary, freeware, and shareware is that Axonic has engineered its system to provide real-time access to information on the user’s computer. The system can handle terabytes of user content, returning results almost instantaneously.
Axonic has deep experience with Microsoft technology. Oehler told me:
Lucene is a beast within the Microsoft environment. Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to work with Outlook without causing problems or affecting performance. Outlook is the lifeblood of most professionals – the most important tool. If it stops working, you stop working. The art of our product is how we tackle the complex code hiding under the surface of Outlook and combine it with Lucene to create a deceptively smooth and simple search solution.
Beyond Search ran tests on Lookeen and compared the results with outputs from a number of test systems. Lookeen’s response times were among the fastest. When indexing and searching email, including archived collections of emails, Lookeen was the top performer. Our test systems include Copernic, dtSearch, Effective File Search, Gaviri, ISYS Desktop Search, and X1.
Lookeen requires no special training or complex set up. Lookeen allows a user to search external shared content directly from the Lookeen app. The interface is clear and logical. A busy professional can access needed documents, view and interact with them without launching an external application.
A 14 day free trial is available. The license fee is $58 for a single user version. The company offers a business edition (at $83) which adds group policy functions and an enterprise edition, which begins at about $116 per user, however volume discounts are available.
To read the complete exclusive interview with Peter Oehler, navigate to the Search Wizards Speak service at this link on ArnoldIT. More information about the company is available at http://www.lookeen.com.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2015
A New French Business Search Engine
March 16, 2015
France is not the first country you think about when it comes to developing new search techniques, much less search engines. However, Web Time Media reports that, “France Datafari Labs Launches New Business Search Engine” meant to rival Polyspot, Exalead, and Sinequa.
France Labs designed the Datafari 1.0 specifically for the cloud and big data and it offers a complete open source enterprise search solution. It was made to be the top performing search application available via open source, making it stiff competition for Apache Solr and ElasticSearch as well.
The description of its offerings is pretty exciting [via Google Translate]:
“The promise to companies is to allow them to retrieve the data wherever they are, whatever they are, safe. Datafari for that innovates on several axes. At the technical level, it manages corpus big data, integrating Apache SolrCloud. Level analysis, it offers analytical queries and dashboards corpus. At development, it is Apache license, non-viral for business (they do not have the obligation to provide the community the developments they do). Finally, the interoperability level Datafari provides a set of REST APIs to expose its connectors as well as its search engine.”
Datfari 1.0 is already being downloaded and experimented with by developers to see if it offers a new, viable, and flexible solution for enterprise and singular networks. The open source search market is already swollen in the English-speaking world, so Datafari needs to explain more about what makes it different from other search applications.
Whitney Grace, March 16, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Makes Bing Faster
March 16, 2015
Bing is classified as a generic search engine living in Google’s as well as DuckDuckGo’s shadows. In an attempt to make Bing a more viable product, ExtremeTech tells us that “Microsoft To Accelerate Bing Search With Neural Network.” When Bing scours the Internet, it pulls results from a Web index that is half the size of Google’s. Microsoft wants to increase Bing’s efficiency and speed, so they created the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology.
Microsoft breaks Bing’s search into three parts: machine learning scoring, feature extraction, and free-form expressions. Bing still uses Xeon processors for its document selection service and it needs to switch over to new FPGA software to increase its search speed. Microsoft called the team developing the new FPGA technology Project Catapult. Project Catapult uses similar tech designed in 2011, but it relies on half the servers as it did in the past.
Microsoft is relying on convolution neural network accelerators (CNNs) for the project:
“Convolutional neural networks (CNNS) are composed of small assemblies of artificial neurons, where each focuses on a just small part of an image — their receptive field. CNNs have already bested humans in classifying objects in challenges like the ImageNet 1000. Classifying documents for ranking is a similar problem, which is now one among many Microsoft hopes to address with CNNs.”
Armed with the new FPGA, Microsoft hopes to increase Bing’s search and rank business to compete at a greater level with Google. While that may increase Bing’s chances of returning better results, remember that Microsoft still creates OS’s that still fail on initial public releases.
Whitney Grace, March 16, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Swiftype Raises More Money for Web Site Search
March 16, 2015
TechCrunch tells us that search startup “Swiftype Raises $13M More For Its Starter Site And App Search.” Swiftype’s mission is pretty straightforward: they want to create customizable search tools that do not suck (TechCrunch’s own language). You have to admit that it is a bold move, considering many out-of-the-box solutions do stink worse than dial-up from 1995 and open source (while it is free and awesome) requires a bit of developer experience. Swiftype takes the guesswork and makes a tailored solution without the hassle or developer experience.
While Swiftype originally started out for Web sites, they have moved into other areas:
“On the other hand, online publishers might not be the most lucrative customer base, so while co-founders Matt Riley and Quin Hoxie told me they still support publishers (and we still use Swiftype at TechCrunch), they’ve also expanded into other areas, particularly knowledge bases (basically, FAQs and customer support sites) and e-commerce.”
The search company will use the $13 million will probably invest the money to expand its already popular search tools. New Enterprise Associates led the Series B funding and they were used for the original Series A round. Swiftype used New Enterprise Associates to form a long-term partnership.
Whitney Grace, March 16, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Square 9 Upgrades with Global Search
March 16, 2015
Square 9 Softworks is famous for its document management service and dtSearch is known for its document filters and developer text retrieval. The companies have partnered their technology on Square 9’s SmartSearch Document Management product line. The San Diego Times shares with us a new development from another team-up: “Square 9’s Award-Winning SmartSearch Document Management Installs Now Include GlobalSearch Embedding The dtSearch Engine.”
SmartSearch products will feature the new GlobalSearch, which enables intranet access to all SmartSearch repositories. SmartSearch is marketed as an out-of-the-box file management system for small businesses and enterprises. The GlobalSearch only improves the product line:
“Square 9’s GlobalSearch platform extends the reach of a SmartSearch installation by delivering anywhere, anytime access to documents from any browser or mobile device. Mobile users can search a single repository or across an entire database quickly and easily, locating exactly what they need. With their documents in hand, GlobalSearch users can securely take whatever action necessary to continue the flow of business information. Features include not only complete navigation and editing, but also automated routing, automatic notification and granular document security.”
An improvement on already highly praised product will only increase Square 9’s sales. Why is it hard for other out-of-the-box solutions to provide such ease of use?
Whitney Grace, March 16, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Old Age, New Age Publishing: A Challenge
March 15, 2015
I don’t know much about “real” publishing. I read a case study of “The Long Story Behind Gigaom’s Sudden Demise.” According to the write up, the tech news and analysis business shut down without warning. The write up reported:
Over the course of eight years, Gigaom, founded by prominent technology journalist Om Malik, had raised around $40 million in equity and debt. Sources said that about $5 million of that came from a 2011 venture debt round led by Western Technology Investment, and in 2014 the company had raised yet more money to help pay that debt down. But, by the end of last year, Gigaom still had significant debt to service — people familiar with the company said it was spending around $400,000 a month on rent and interest payments.
One of the investors was Reed Elsevier, a giant sci-tech publishing company, which owns LexisNexis and other properties.
The article said:
Gigaom seemed to be a Web publisher that had figured out how to thrive by developing multiple revenue streams. In addition to its website, which the company said attracted an audience of 6.5 million people a month, Gigaom also had an events business and a research arm. The company had placed particular emphasis on building up research over the years, pointing to it as proof that readers would pay for high-quality content.
Guess not?
Stephen E Arnold, March 15, 2015
Loon Has Rough Landing
March 14, 2015
I liked balloons when I was a more youthful version of my ageing self. Now I find the specter of balloons floating over my home during the Kentucky Derby Festival annoying. One of my boxers gets nervous when the shape floats and hisses as the adventurers ignite their burners to keep the puppy, beer can, or globular advertisements aloft.
I read with some enjoyment “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! Google Balloon Crash Alarms Town.” (If the article disappears, complain to the publisher, not me. Thanks.) I won’t quote from the source because it carries the pound banner of the Associated Press, and I don’t need its legal eagles flapping around my ears.
The point of the write up, as I understand it, is that a Google Loon balloon fell gently from the sky. The location is somewhere in Veracruz, the state, not the city. I know Google is into search, relevance, inventing the future, and trying to make money as the desktop search model erodes. I know that balloons are generally a benign technology compared to asbestos mining or underwater surveillance of a hostile naval operation. I get it.
One question: What happens if one of these puppies drops gently on a children’s pre-school or does a death spiral into an outdoor market in a rural area?
Relevant? Nah, just search for balloon and get the Wikipedia hit here. I do like the first major entry under “applications”—“Decoration or Entertainment.” Providing wireless service to underserved populations earns nary a mention.
Stephen E Arnold, March 15, 2015
Elasticsearch Stretches and Competitors Could Bounce Off Its Elastic Surface
March 14, 2015
I know that my comments about the dead end nature of enterprise search have caught the attention of some vendors. Let’s face it. Search is a utility, a tool to be used when performing other work. Search is not, as some failed middle school teachers and English majors dressed up in Merlin the Magician outfits, promulgate.
Elasticsearch has shifted gears and rebranded itself as Elastic. The company provides some information about the shift at its new Web site www.elastic.co. The company says:
Elastic believes getting immediate, actionable insight from data matters. As the company behind the three open source projects — Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana — designed to take data from any source and search, analyze, and visualize it in real time, Elastic is helping people make sense of data. From stock quotes to Twitter streams, Apache logs to WordPress blogs, our products are extending what’s possible with data, delivering on the promise that good things come from connecting the dots.
I think this repositioning is likely to put a tight elastic band around the throat of a number of competitors. I don’t think Elastic is sufficiently tight to kill these outfits. The positioning grip is definitely going to make their breathing more difficult.
Search is not dead at Elastic. The company is responding to the market’s need for a solution that delivers a tangible benefit, not a laundry list of jargon, buzzwords, and assertions that history has made clear are mostly baloney.
One question crossed my mind, “What will LucidWorks do to respond?” My thought is that LucidWorks is probably trying to craft a counter move. Millions are at stake, and I think the financial backers of the former Lucid Imagination will want more than ideas.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2015
HP Autonomy: HP Shareholder Deal
March 14, 2015
I am no legal eagle. I did find “US Judge Approves HP Shareholder Deal over Autonomy Acquisition” interesting. (If the news story disappears, well, that’s life in the world of real news.)
The story reports:
Hewlett-Packard Co won preliminary approval from a U.S. judge to settle shareholder litigation on Friday involving the information technology company’s botched acquisition of Autonomy Plc. The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, comes after HP failed to win approval of two previous proposed deals. Breyer had written that the last deal may not have been fair for shareholders because it could have forced them to give up claims beyond the Autonomy deal.
The battle over HP’s decision to purchase Autonomy continues. I assume the lawyers representing the parties to this matter are thinking about appeals. Will billing cross their minds?
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2015
Algorithms: Be Careful with Those College Math Notes
March 13, 2015
I read “Algorithmia Launches With More Than 800 Algorithms On Its Marketplace.” With the world embracing smart software, the monetization of math is no surprise. I would point out that one of my math books is an early version of Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing. the book contains more than 400 numerical routines. The book includes useful explanations of MCMC, linear programming, and Delaunay triangulation, and more.
I also have Advanced Math for Beginners, a Russian textbook. There are other math books on my shelves including a copy of Zbigniew Michalewicz’s Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs. My assumption is that I could study the examples in these and other books, create a program, and move forward with my really smart software application. Maybe not? I thought. What happens if a I use an algorithm for sale on Algorithmia which I ingested from one of these textbooks? Yikes. Jail time? A fine? A Google Oracle Java style dust up? Could Algorithmia take legal action against a company dependent on methods taught in college classes?
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2015
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