By Chris Sherman Executive Editor, July 12, 2001
As most readers know, Search Engine Watch concentrates primarily on developments in searching across the entire web. However, there's an entire other category of search that's of interest to many people -- search tools and products that make sites and intranets searchable.
In this issue of SearchDay, guest writer Avi Rappoport provides an update on developments in the world of search products. Avi is a respected expert on this subject and operates an outstanding site on the subject, SearchTools.com. You can visit it via the URL below:
SearchTools.com
http://www.searchtools.com
And now, on to news about search tools and products...
MondoSearch Acquires Searchbutton
MondoSoft, which provides both remote search services and search
software, has agreed to acquire Searchbutton.com, another leading
remote search service. MondoSearch strengths include interfaces in
many languages, unique frame recognition while indexing, showing
results in categories, and date sensitivity. Searchbutton strengths
are simple yet powerful administration interfaces and excellent
search reporting. While this consolidation reduces some of the
competition in the field, we hope that the merged company will be
stronger and more able to withstand the current downturn.
Searchbutton customers can move to the MondoSearch service, which
starts at $420 per month, or the MondoSearch software on internal
servers, starting at $6,200.
http://www.mondosearch.com
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/mondosearch.html
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/searchbutton.html
AltaVista Search Enterprise and Personal Search
AltaVista has announced two new products: Enterprise Search and
Personal Search. The enterprise version is designed to allow
organizations to make use of internal information in structured
databases and unstructured formats, such as personal archives and
email servers. It will integrate with corporate security and access
control systems as well as organizational policies for adjusting
results relevance rankings. The Personal version will index text on
workstations, allowing individuals to use the Web search paradigm to
search their own hard drives and file stores.
An AP story interviewed privacy advocates who expressed concern
about corporate intrusion into obscure and intimate files of
individual employees. This may also expose companies to demands for
evidence in harassment and employment law cases. Other analysts
point out that any information on business machines is owned by that
business, and AltaVista promises tools to limit indexing and protect
specific areas.
Although AltaVista will index over 200 file formats, including ZIP,
it cannot break encryption, so we expect to see a sudden upsurge of
personal encryption utility use among attentive employees.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/altavista.html
mnoGoSearch Ported to Windows and Mac OS X
The Russian search engine mnoGoSearch has been ported to Windows,
although that version is not free. This engine uses a database back
end instead of an inverted index, and includes interfaces for PHP,
Perl and so on. The Unix version (free and open source) has been
ported to Mac OS X, as have the Onix and ht://Dig search engines.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/mnogosearch.html
http://mnogosearch.org
http://mnogosearch.org/win.html
Inktomi Search Updates to version 4.1.2
The new version of Inktomi's search software (formerly Ultraseek)
indexes databases via Oracle connector or ODBC, and includes more
features for Japanese and Korean languages, updates to file format
filters including double-byte PDF 1.2 files, support for cookies,
summaries of MS Word documents and improved support for US
Government Section 508 standards (disabled accessibility
compliance).
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/inktomi-search.html
http://www.inktomi.com/products/search/products/ultraseek/index.html
Quiver To Integrate Classification with Inktomi Search
The Quiver taxonomy and categorization tool will integrate Inktomi
Search Software to provide a complete information retrieval and
navigation system.
http://www.quiver.com
http://www.searchtools.com/info/classifiers.html
New Pricing for Atomz Remote Search Prime Service
Atomz Search Prime is now available for $600 per year for indexing
and searching 1,000 pages, down from $2000. The free version remains
available for up to 500 pages and does not display any advertising
banners, though it does require an Atomz logo graphic. The paid
versions provide more control, more frequent updates and telephone
technical support. Atomz also offers an Enterprise Search for larger
sites, ecommerce stores and enterprise intranets.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/atomz.html
FizzyLabs closed
FizzyLabs, which provided related items based on AI and
document-similarity analysis, has shut down, another victim of the
dotcom downturn.
Some of the smartest folks working on peer-to-peer computing
designed this interchange standard to allow a central server to
accept queries, distribute them to the appropriate search servers
and return the results to the original clients. It was known as
InfraSearch, then GoneSilent, and is now part of Sun's JXTA project.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/jxta-search.html
http://search.jxta.org
80-20 Discovery
Uses complex neural net and concept retrieval algorithms rather than
simple word matching. Can distribute searching to multiple servers
and integrates with Windows security.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/80-20.html
http://80-20.com/products/discovery/index.htm
LikeIt
Performs pattern-matching on parts of words rather than whole words,
for better recall. Can run locally or be hosted remotely, also
available as an ANSI C code library.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/likeit.html
http://www.netrics.com/lp/products.htm
Recommind MindServer
New search engine and automatic classification and categorization
system uses semantic analysis to find the underlying topics of
documents and return the most useful results first. Designed for
Intranets and Enterprise Information Portals.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/recommind.html
http://www.recommind.com/solutions/ms-retrieval.html
nexTrieve Ultralite
This search engine uses fuzzy matching extensively, to match terms
misspelled either in the search query or the web pages. It has
special features for indexing mailing lists, and provides speedy
results on large collections, even on low-end servers.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/nextrieve.html
http://www.nexial.com/nextrieve/
Autonomy Search
Autonomy has been around for many years, but has not emphasized its
search engine, which uses Bayesian pattern recognition to match
queries to documents. This search is integrated into the Autonomy
EIP, including automated categorization, document similarity
matching, and adaptive and collaborative filtering technology.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/autonomy.html
http://www.autonomy.com/autonomy/dynamic/autopage10.shtml
Windex Search
A Java search engine from France, the indexing is done first, and
then a Java applet to search and display results. The index and
applet can be distributed on CD or DVD disc, or from a web site.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/windex.html
http://www.lug.com/anglais/search-engine-windex.htm
Searching MP3 Metadata
ID3 metadata formats offer searchable information about MP3 music
files. A few search engines recognize this information, and we hope
to see more in the future. This report provides a short background
discussion, links to the ID3 information, and listings of search
engines which can find the MP3 metadata.
http://www.searchtools.com/info/mp3-search.html
Meta Search Engines
As sites and Intranets get more complex, it's nice to search all the
data at once time. MetaSearch engines can send requests to multiple
text and database search interfaces, then present the results to
users. This report provides a little background, some information on
the Z39.50 metasearch standard, and listings of meta search engines
and toolkits.
http://www.searchtools.com/info/metasearch.html
XML Query Engine
Free-text search for XML fields in hierarchies, compatible with XQL
and XQuery (W3C Query Language draft). Available in the form of an
Enterprise Java Bean.
http://www.searchtools.com/tools/xqengine.html
http://www.fatdog.com
NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication's search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.