Sometimes I stray from writing about federated search to covering enterprise search. Enterprise search is a close cousin to federated search so I’m not straying too far. I find myself at times inspired by what people are thinking about and doing in the enterprise search world. Enterprise Search: Rethinking it in a Web 2.0 World is a FUMSI article by Jayne Dutra that is visionary in its view of where enterprise search is going.

Dutra understands that search is complex because the needs of the enterprise are complex as are the many ways that information can be gathered and assessed. Dutra writes:

Enterprise search is no longer a one-size-fits-all problem. Information retrieval is a complex area that is being increasingly seen as task dependent. In other words, how and why a user searches is directly related to what type of activity he is engaged in. Therefore search solutions must be designed around specific business problems that provide meaningful value to the enterprise.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

A recent article at Forbes.com, Why Google isn’t Enough, caught my attention. The article looks at limitations of Google in the enterprise. Here’s the gist of the article:

… the problem of using search inside a company is much more complicated than just indexing documents, throwing up a search box and asking people if they feel lucky.

The article goes on to raise the concern that installing a search appliance in the enterprise, from Google or some other vendor, may lead to disappointment. Several reasons are cited for the disappointment. Here are two important ones:

First, and most important, Internet search is built on the link network that constitutes the Web. … In the enterprise, there is no corresponding link structure and the quality of the results suffer.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Some of you may recall an article I wrote in April, Federated search in the enterprise. That article speaks to how information is organized in a fundamentally different way in the enterprise than in the internet-at-large and how federated search vendors wanting to enter the enterprise search market need to think differently about how to craft solutions. A recent study adds a new wrinkle to providing search to the enterprise - their data is frequently not searchable.

AIIM recently published an article, Enterprise Search Frustrates and Disappoints Users. If the title weren’t depressing enough, check out the subtitle: “69% of respondents report that less than half of enterprise information is searchable online.” This article, and the associated study, is about enterprise search. What’s the relevance of the article to federated search?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Search industry pundit, Stephen Arnold, writes about enterprise search train wrecks in his Beyond Search blog. Arnold sees many enterprise search installations, not as train wrecks that are waiting to happen, but as those that have already happened. Federated search vendors and customers should read Arnold’s article carefully. The article leads with this bold statement:

Enterprise search may be a train wreck for more than half of the people who use today’s most popular systems. The Big Name vendors can grouse, stomp, and sneer at this assertion. Reality: Most of these systems disappoint their licensees. When a search system “goes off the rails”, the consequences can be unexpected.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!