Enterprise Search Sourcebook 2008

• Search “scopes” that allow users to broaden or narrow a search based on a content collection (e.g., intranet, department, or team) • Security trimming, so users only see those results that they’re authorized to access • Synonym suggestion (Did you mean …?) and term highlighting in search results • Improved relevancy and ranking algorithms using such factors as click distance, hyperlink anchor text, URL depth, and metadata extraction • Editorial control over which documents show at the top of search results through “Best Bets” and “Authoritative Sources;” • Greater control over what content is included in search results through crawl rules, immediate removal of any site or item from the search index, and multiple start addresses per content source • Better usage reports—Previously, administrators reported having trouble extracting data from search logs; now they can create their own reports from a variety of built-in templates In addition, MOSS 2007 search has two new features: People search, which allows users to find employees not only by department or job title but also by expertise, social distance, and common interests (integration with Microsoft’s Active Directory saves implementation time, especially if the directory contains information about security levels and what people actually do), and the Business Data Catalog, which allows users to search content stored in SAP, Oracle, and other databases. Evaluating Effectiveness How effective are these new and improved features? One large global organization compared MOSS 2007 search with Google, using a test collection of half a million documents. From a relevancy standpoint, both gave similar results without using metadata cues. Three-fourths of the 500 users enrolled in the test said that MOSS 2007 search was better than what they had used before (a combination of SharePoint 2003 and a well-known enterprise search engine). Testers especially liked three things: First, results were more informative because document summaries enabled users to determine what they were about, which was a big time saver. Second, the solution was simple and didn’t require users to learn how to search; they got reasonably good results by typing a word or phrase in the search box. Third, the MOSS solution integrated with desktop applications; SharePoint search is available in the upper right54 ENTERPRISE SEARCH SOURCEBOOK 2008 hand corner of the Internet Explorer 7 browser and is integrated with Windows desktop search. (Note that users only see results that they are permitted to access.) The search manager also reported that MOSS 2007 is easier to administer and maintain, though he said the index update process is still too time-consuming. He liked the variety of usage reports, especially the one that shows the most popular search terms that have no Best Bets assigned to them (i.e., the editors have not selected one or more documents or sites to display at the top of the those results lists). Room for Improvement Even those who like MOSS for search point out that there is still room for improvement. Here are some features they would like to see: • Wild card search—Enables a user to substitute one or more letters of a search word with an asterisk Mapping crawled metadata properties to “managed properties” (metadata that can be used in search scopes and queries). Visitors can search effectively for names and products without knowing the exact spelling • Video/image/audio search—Search audio and video files; display image search results as thumbnail images • Support for “near” operator—Enables a user to enter two search terms and specify their proximity to each other (e.g., “defense near 2002” would find documents in which the words “defense” and “2002” occur within a specified number of words within the document text) • Document highlighting—MOSS highlights search terms in the list of results, but not in the target webpage Many, if not all, of these features are available through third-party add-ons from vendors such as Coveo and Mondosoft Ontolica. Unlike other search engine vendors,

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Enterprise Search Sourcebook 2008

Enterprise Search Sourcebook 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Publisher’s Note Findings and Figures Why Enterprise Search Will Never Be Google-y Searching for Search Usability Your Users Are Talking to You What’s Your Search Story? Search Is Dead—Now What? Delivering on the Promise of Enterprise Search Taming Multiple Search Engines in Your Organization Enterprise Search: Trends for 2008 Enterprise Search Seen From the Inside Open Source Search: Elixir or Poison? Avoiding the Big Mistakes in Search Semantic Search Takes Root in the Enterprise E-Discovery Essentials: The Rules You Need to Know SharePoint Search: An Enterprise Contender? Integrating Security Into Your Enterprise Search Infrastructure Engineering a Better Search Infrastructure Letting End Users Ask the Questions, Stat! The Power of Knowledge Legal Research Using Enterprise Search: A Developer’s View From Treading Water to Full Steam Ahead Pulling Out All the Stops With Midas A Natural Search Solution An Incremental Approach to Improving Enterprise Search The Enterprise Search Sourcebook Showcase Directory Index to Advertisers and Companies Mentioned

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