Enterprise Search Sourcebook 2008

Finally, there’s no way to show broader or narrower relationships in search results (e.g., “see also” links or an expandable hierarchy of related topics). At least two organizations we know of have bumped into size and performance limitations with the MOSS thesaurus (Microsoft says there’s a 10 MB limit). Changing the Order of Results One major use of a thesaurus is to classify documents (i.e., assign terms to them). Organizations that have used a thesaurus in this way, either by using human indexers or an auto-categorization program, can leverage some of this work in MOSS through Best Bets and Authoritative Pages. With Best Bets, MOSS administrators can associate keywords with specific webpages or sites. When a user types the keyword into the search box, MOSS displays those sites designated as Best Bets either at the top of the results list or in a sidebar and marks them with an icon, such as a star. With Authoritative Sites, administrators increase or decrease the relevance of content within search results by assigning one of four levels to a webpage or site: most authoritative, second-level authoritative, thirdlevel authoritative, or sites to demote in the ranking. Sites that are not assigned an Authoritative Page level are weighted based on their “click distance” from an authoritative site. Click distance refers to the number of links between a page and an authoritative page linking to the content item. So while it’s possible to tweak MOSS search results using a variety of techniques along with some data from an existing thesaurus, it’s a labor-intensive endeavor. For this reason, some organizations with large, complex taxonomies opt to purchase third-party thesaurus-management software that integrates with SharePoint—an approach that Microsoft endorses. Examples of MOSS-compatible taxonomy management tools include Factiva Synaptica, Data Harmony Machine-Aided Indexer, Schemalogic SchemaServer, and Interse I-box. A Consistent Experience Users want a simple, effective way to search all available content collections—whether they reside in SharePoint, on the company’s intranet, in databases, or in external information services. The ideal is a single search box, a results page that contains relevant listings without duplicates, and a way to match user security profiles with content access levels in each content source. Within MOSS, an administrator can create a Shared Services Provider (SSP) and instruct it to crawl all the 56 ENTERPRISE SEARCH SOURCEBOOK 2008 content sources deemed necessary for a particular business function. Sources can include SharePoint content, the company intranet, database applications such as SAP and Oracle, and external information services such as FindLaw. The crawl results are stored in a single index, which makes the search relatively fast and efficient. However, large organizations typically have multiple SSPs. To allow a user to search all of them from a single user interface, you can purchase a third-party application, such as Mondosoft’s Ontolica (see the federated search option on the Ontolica website), or you can select an enterprise search engine that can crawl and index SharePoint content. Examples include Autonomy, FAST, Longitude (BAInsight), Oracle, Recommind, Vivísimo, and others. Is MOSS 2007 Right for You? Organizations that use SharePoint for collaboration and content management should consider MOSS for enterprise search. Its tight integration with Microsoft applications Definitions and Best Bets (with star icon) in MOSS search results. (especially Office), its low cost, and its new search features make it a serious contender. Because MOSS is designed for bottom-up implementation, it’s important to get input from business units, as well as the enterprise search team and taxonomy manager, if there is one. Several of our members at Montague have mentioned the effort needed to customize MOSS search and to set up interfaces to other business applications through the MOSS Business Data Connector. Added to that is the cost of purchasing third-party programs for enhanced search features and taxonomy management. We suspect that for many organizations, the question is not “Should we use MOSS as our enterprise search engine?” but rather “What’s the best way to integrate our non-Microsoft enterprise search engine with MOSS?” JEAN GRAEF is a founder of the Society of Knowledge Base Publishers, a membership organization sponsored by the Montague Institute, which conducts research and development on issues of information productivity.

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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