Open Source Faceted Search Solutions

September 12, 2011

There is little doubt that if you are handy with the bits and bytes, you can get quite a mileage boost from open source search technology.

Stephanie Lemieux shares her experience in “Open-Source Options for Faceted Search for the Budget Conscious User” at CMS Wire. Ms Lemieux was helping an organization improve their online document search, but the group couldn’t afford any of the big name faceted search solutions. Her research into alternatives produced some open source options.

First on the list is Apache Solr. Its simple faceting toolkit is good only for basic searches, Lemieux says, but can be expanded by a “savvy” IT department or consultants.

Sphinx is the next entry, which she points out is well suited for indexing database content, scales well, and boasts real-time indexing. However, the facet support takes some effort to implement.

Then there’s Drupal, which is a content management system. Lemieux recommends this one only if you’re starting a website from scratch, of course. A search API module enables faceting and can be applied to various backend engines, including the aforementioned Solr.

Lemieux cautions:

Keep in mind that open-source does not automatically equal easy or cheap: if you have complex requirements and end up hiring integrators to implement your solution, you still might end up with a somewhat pricey project. But open-source solutions do have large communities behind them, so development can be faster and less expensive than vendor professional services.

She closes with an emphatic reminder that faceted search is only as good as the taxonomy and metadata that supports it. That’s a point that’s tempting to overlook, but crucial. Keep in mind that if your personal open source search guru heads for greener commercial pastures, you will have to pay to get the expertise to keep your open source search system singing a happy tune.

Cynthia Murrell September 12, 2011

Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Financial, News, Open source, Search

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.