SharePoint 2013 Offers Improvements in Search
January 10, 2013
An overall architecture for SharePoint 2013 Search can be found on the Search Technologies’ Web site.
As new releases tend to do, SharePoint 2013 has made some tweaks that users would do well to explore, we learn in “Search Engine Changes in SharePoint 2013” from iT Pro. SharePoint consultant Veena Sarda details the search-related changes and presents them in a handy chart.
The first thing to note is that FAST Search has now been worked into the SharePoint code base. That means that FAST capabilities like metadata extraction, visual search, and advanced linguistics are now part of the package. Content and analytics processors have been added to the logical architecture, and a specialized Search Administrator now manages these and other search-related components. Also new is a dedicated analysis engine, which performs both search and usage analytics.
Crawling has been improved; it is now possible to crawl http sites anonymously, and the time for the index to merge and present those results has been dramatically shortened. Results rendering has been moved from the server to the client side. Document parsing is now much more refined, relying on a set of new parsing features, rather than on file extensions to do the job.
Other welcome improvements affect the user experience. The UI has been revamped to accommodate the new features, with a re-design based on nested layout templates defined in JavaScript and HTML. This change allows for easier extensibility. Furthermore, end users now have an easier time of it; the write-up notes that the platform now provides:
“Direct access to the most granular information inside of sites and documents, and then enables users to act on the results without having to leave the results page. Every search box in every team site offers full access to enterprise-wide search, people search, and other specialized search experiences in addition to the traditional scoped site search.”
Part of this simplified workflow is the new Hover feature, which presents a visual preview of sites, documents, and conversations at the pause of a mouse.
A few more search-related improvements: Authors are identified as experts based on document content, where before they were identified by My Site profiles. People Search (which used to be independent of document search) has been integrated with the core results and can be targeted by name, location, phone number, and other properties.
Perhaps one of the most noteworthy shifts is the new Query Rules feature. SharePoint 2010 only allows for simple queries—one query, one set of results. Sarda writes:
“Query Rules are a new feature in SharePoint 13 that help act upon the ‘intent’ of a query – Query Rules are composed of three top level elements: Query Conditions (i.e. matching rules), Query Actions (i.e. what do you do when you find a match), Publishing Options (i.e. when should this rule be active). Query Rules allows to have search requests from a user trigger multiple queries and multiple result sets.”
A welcome addition. For more information on SharePoint 2013, see the “brief functional walk-through” posted at Search Technologies. It contains, among other things, an easy-to-understand flow chart. The SharePoint experts there also promise to post future updates at that link.
Search Technologies leverages search engines to provide business advantages to their clients. With over twenty years of experience in the field, the company asserts that it is the largest IT services company dedicated to search engine implementation, consulting, and managed services. For information on the firm’s SharePoint 2013 Search Services, visit www.searchtechnologies.com. Search Technologies is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
Cynthia Murrell, January 10, 2013
Attivio Offers Attractive Security Options
January 7, 2013
Attivio makes a very strong case for its own security solution in “The Pitfalls of Early Binding, Late Binding and Hybrid Security Models.” The well-organized article begins by describing each model and its pitfalls. For example, early binding requires constant content reprocessing, while late binding tends to slow response times considerably. The hybrid model, naturally, retains flaws from both its parent models. This section would actually make a good primer on the subject.
Next, the piece explains Attivio’s unique approach, which began by looking at how organizations actually used access controls. Steve Bower, director of client engineering and author of the post, discusses his company’s method:
“The first thing we came to understand was that changes in access control are primarily changes in access to sets – sometimes large – of content, as well changes to the user/group structure itself. . . .
“At the root of our Active Security model is the idea of breaking up the access control problem into its constituent parts; users, groups, documents and ACLs. To accomplish this, Active Security models documents, ACLs and user/group hierarchies as independent records within the Attivio universal index, enabling discrete control by allowing for independent updates to any part of the system. At query time these pieces are brought together, in a single query execution, using a combination of Attivio’s patented JOIN operator and Attivio’s GRAPH operator.”
Bower states that this innovative approach results in improvements over the traditional options, including latency reduction and a reduced load on security systems. He also lauds the platform’s scalability, simplicity, and extensibility.
Headquartered in Newton, MA, Attivio also has offices in the UK and Germany. The company offers high-performance, cost-effective approaches to the complex data challenges faced by government agencies and their defense and aerospace colleagues. Attivio prides itself on innovatively integrating enterprise search, intelligence, and analytic capabilities to provide the best solutions.
Cynthia Murrell, January 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Information Management Is Key to Intelligent Search
December 31, 2012
Searching for information within an enterprise is often not simple, or even fruitful. A recent survey from MindMetre gives us the disturbing truth that over half of knowledge workers admitted they cannot find the information they are looking for using their company’s enterprise search system. The facts are detailed in a white paper from KMWorld titled “Best Practices in Intelligent Search,” which argues that under-management of information, not information overload, is to blame.
An overture to this white paper, “What Are You Looking For? An Overture to ‘Intelligent Search,’” is featured on Enterprise Search Center. The overture states:
“We set out to discuss “enterprise search” and “intelligent search” in this White Paper. And that we shall. But let’s get something straight: Enterprise search is not what you think it is. It is not a single unified piece of software that can magically scour through the dozens of business applications that contain that piece of information our hypothetical guy was looking for. And, much less, it is not a single tool that can seek, discover and deliver an important piece of information from the hundreds and thousands of repositories from which it may emerge.”
This article and corresponding white paper offer a lot of wisdom on enterprise search facilities and Intrafind can be a great resource as organizations seek to make the best of their investments. High-quality research surrounding the capabilities and necessary features of search applications is a focal point of the information retrieval specialists.
Andrea Hayden, December 31, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
2012 Good Year for Open Source
December 31, 2012
This year, 2012, was a crazy year with lots of big news items and lots of interesting developments in the tech world. Open Source Insider provides a 2012 year in review with, “Video: a Good Year for Open Source in 2012.”
The article jumps into some startling statistics:
“ . . . Some serious development work has been going on in the open source arena. Where Google is there to remind us to search for pictures of cute polar bears, The Linux Foundation is on hand to remind us that…
Goldman Sachs reported late last week that Windows has gone from dominating 97% of the computing market to 20%.
Android leads while Apple takes up second place. The Goldman Sachs report reads as follows, ‘Microsoft faces an uphill battle (though not insurmountable) given it lacks meaningful share in either tablets or smartphones and as such will need to rely on its appeal to knowledge workers to help drive adoption as its complement ecosystem will remain behind the iOS and Android platforms at least over the next 6-12 months.’”
Just as Internet search engines and operating systems have moved toward open source, so has enterprise search. Enterprise search is almost entirely dominated by high-quality open source search offerings. One that we particularly like is LucidWorks. LucidWorks has longevity on its side, focusing on open source before open source enjoyed such popularity. LucidWorks Search is ready out-of-the-box to bring efficiency to an organization’s information architecture. An industry standard, LucidWorks has stood the test of time, but it is still nice to get a boost from open source’s recent surge in popularity.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 31, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Effective Search Technology Is Business Critical in 2013
December 28, 2012
This has been the year of “big data” and search acquisitions, and we have tracked the changes closely. CMSWire has also noticed the trend, making note in the recent article “Search in 2013 Will Become a Business Critical Application.” The article comments on the emerging trend of search implementation and argues that information and actionable insights from big data are critical to business. The need has never been greater for effective search technology and support.
The article continues:
“The Findwise survey […] indicates that less than 20 percent of organizations have a strategy for search even though many of them will be supporting multiple search applications. I expect this figure to improve markedly by the time the 2013 Findwise survey is presented [in May].
The 2011/2012 search vendor acquisition frenzy took out most of the mid-range vendors. In 2013 we will find out whether smaller commercial vendors can attract the investment they need to bring their technologies to a wider market or whether the space will be taken by open-source applications.”
We believe search will be critical to successful business operations in 2013. Secure search and the use of metatagging will lead to improved business processes and enterprise decisions driven by content. The article mentions Intrafind as a potential option for a blend of open-source and proprietary modules and we believe this software has the necessary offerings to help integrate business-critical search.
Andrea Hayden, December 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IBM Returns to Pure Software Roots As Technology Evolves
December 27, 2012
Since IBM ceased their production of applications and reorganized into two organizations, Middleware and Solutions in 2011, they have been pumping out infrastructure software and the complementary integration components to go with it. These inner organizational changes have helped them determine the type of solutions they can offer to companies as the industry itself evolves.
Seeking Alpha’s article “So What Does IBM Mean When It Says It’s In The Solutions Business?” explains what type of solutions IBM will be providing in the future:
“It is not individual packaged products per se, but groups of related software products, services, and systems. And we know at very high level where IBM is going to focus its solutions efforts. IBM has always been about software, services, and systems – although in recent years the first two have taken front stage. The flip side is that some of these solutions areas are overly broad. Smarter Analytics is a catch-all covering the familiar areas of business intelligence and performance management, predictive analytics and analytical decision management, and analytic applications.”
The need for sustainable ROI in technology, it is unsurprising that IBM returned to their software roots. IBM seeks opportunities with best in class partners and their association with leading enterprise search companies such as Intrafind,is a relationship that seems to be paying off well. Intrafind was an early IBM Pure integrator and both sides seem to be making the best of the relationship.
Jennifer Shockley, December 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Full Service Providers Successfully Navigate and Mine the Digital Universe Resources
December 26, 2012
The various ways to utilize Big Data without suffering unnecessary storage headaches has made headlines over the past few years. Some software applications evolved early to create a cure. Steve Todd’s article “Information Playground: Technologies for the Emerging Digital Universe” rehashes the facts about M2M usage increases and the importance of processing that incoming data.
The digital universe is not emerging, as it reared its head a decade ago. Instead it is technology that is emerging, as new developers experiment with ways to manipulate and benefit from the massive amounts of incoming data:
“More and more streaming data will be ingested into in-memory, distributed data grids. The key is the in-memory, horizontal scale provided by these types of technologies. Business logic accepts streaming machine input from sensors and immediately stores them in either key-value (Gemfire) or SQL (SQLFire) format. More and more streaming machine data will be process in real-time by a technology known as CEP, Complex Event Processing. This is a method of tracking and analyzing (processing) streams of information (data) about things that happen (events), and deriving a conclusion from them.”
Thought provoking, but established developers considered these possibilities a decade ago and made provisions to navigate and mine the resources of the digital universe. We think preparing the enterprise for the continuing deluge of information will benefit from working with a full service firm such as Intrafind, whose consulting services can guide organizations through the strategy that will make the most of their data investments.
Jennifer Shockley, December 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Companies Striving for Success Choose Proven Enterprise Search Software Providers
December 25, 2012
The days of limited mobile app options came to an end a few years ago with the increased popularity of BYOD (bring your own device) work options. A growing demand for products to simplify work processes brought about phenomenal improvements on tablets and mobile devices. In turn, the enterprise app market skyrocketed, not in price but in product offerings. Companies looking to invest in the most beneficial applications for their business will want to weigh their options carefully.
Enterprise Apps Today’s article “Choosing the Right Enterprise Apps for your Business” touches on the importance of all around support when filtering through application options:
“Today, a hefty proportion of cutting-edge applications can be found on cloud platforms in the form of SaaS (software-as-a-service). While a quick glance at the website of an enterprise software offering will tell a great deal about the maturity of a project, it is hardly the entire story. For the huge investment of time and money that a business expects to make in an enterprise software deployment, it’s important to first ensure that a supporting ecosystem is in place.”
The article offers good advice and guidance on choosing the best applications, but companies striving for success will choose a proven enterprise search software provider. Intrafind offers guidance on strategy, applications and use of enterprise search software that can help businesses make the most of their investment. Financial firms and pharmaceutical industry leaders are just a few examples of the types of enterprise that rely on Intrafind’s capabilities.
Jennifer Shockley, December 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
2013 Will See Search go to Business Critical
December 25, 2012
This last year, 2012, saw a lot of developments in the world of enterprise search. Martin White, an expert on the topic, wrote the 2012 recap article, “Search in 2013 Will Become a Business Critical Application,” for CMS Wire. His recap of 2012 developments goes like this:
“Looking back, 2012 has been quite a year for search. From a business perspective Lexmark acquired Isys-Search, Lucid Imagination changed its name, Attivio gained a US$ 37 million investment, Coveo followed with an US$ 18 million investment, Apache Lucene and Solr moved to Release 4, ElasticSearch set up a commercial arm and Microsoft announced a seriously well-featured SharePoint 2013 search application.”
Perhaps more importantly, White goes on to discuss what 2013 might look like. To sum it up, 2013 will see Big Data take center stage and enterprise search will go from a necessity, to an absolutely necessity. Business will no longer be able to be conducted on any scale without a sophisticated search infrastructure. White recommends that organizations take the following steps, amongst others:
“Find out what skills the organization already possesses in information and data discovery and analysis.
Start to build networks with other organizations using your particular search technology stack. If your vendor is reluctant to help, ask them why!
Plan to be at either Enterprise Search Europe or the Enterprise Search Summit in May.”
I would add another to the list. Check out LucidWorks and see what their solutions can do for your organization. Intuitive out-of-the-box, it offers the latest enterprise search technology without bogging down your existing staff.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Strong Infrastructure and Flexible Computing Options Has Enterprises Flying High on Search
December 24, 2012
Companies are looking for the most economical way to increase ROI and the right software can easily provide the solution. The problem then comes to choosing the right software for your business?
CIO’s utilizing the cloud combined with enterprise search are literally floating on cloud nine, according to Wall Street Journal’s article “Oracle Earnings Show CIO Preference for Cloud and Systems”. Oracle’s shares exceeded analyst expectations by 3 cents per share, and credit is given to the cloud combined with search software:
“CIOs are embracing cloud software because of lower initial costs and other benefits, such as the ability to increase their usage of software, upgrade applications without the disruptions that come with traditional on-premise applications and the positive financial impact of being able to take cloud services as an expense rather than having to capitalize software and hardware purchases. Companies are investing in technology rather than in employees. That’s not good news for people who are unemployed, but it is good news for employees who are getting technology in their hands that can make them more productive.”
Cloud solutions combined with integrated infrastructure such as the partnership demonstrated by IBM Pure and Intrafind make for a good investment. The word hybrid comes to mind. This partnerships combines the stability and strength of IBM with the ever evolving enterprise search development that comes from a well established open source foundation. The result is more accessible, more secure and more usable enterprise information. Companies that choose the cloud combined with proven enterprise search software will be floating on their own cloud nine with Oracle and the other successful businesses.
Jennifer Shockley, December 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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