Comments on: Google Search Appliance: Under the Hood Pros and Cons http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/ Musings of Anna Belle Leiserson Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:57:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: searchwhiz http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-733 searchwhiz Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:03:25 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-733 Another search product worth reviewing is SearchBlox. SearchBlox comes with built-in clustering of search results and the web based interface is very good. http://www.searchblox.com/ Another search product worth reviewing is SearchBlox. SearchBlox comes with built-in clustering of search results and the web based interface is very good.

http://www.searchblox.com/

]]> By: john http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-647 john Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:09:05 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-647 The public perception is interesting. I had a couple folks talk to me about search and both used Google. I said show me what you do. It was interesting one did a search as an example using Google.com and said it saved time. I looked at the results and noted his request for PDF files associated with a particular name left less than 50% of results page with pdf files and the additional string wasnt even at same organization. Then did the same search in Ultraseek. All PDF output focused on additional subject. But the google perception to him was he was saving time. While in reality it was not even close. It looks like if you want to improve search you would look at IDOL or FAST. Maybe Endeca or Dieselpoint. Going from Ultraseek to Google Appliance may be just spending $25k? a year to get what you already have. My guess is if you want to improve results make a big push on educating your web community on good titles, etc. Would have a dramatic impact. You should download Ultraseek and look thru the admin interface. The public perception is interesting. I had a couple folks talk to me about search and both used Google. I said show me what you do. It was interesting one did a search
as an example using Google.com and said it saved time. I looked at the results and noted his request for PDF files associated with a particular name left less than 50% of results page with pdf files and the additional string wasnt even at same organization. Then did the same search in Ultraseek. All PDF output focused on additional subject. But the google perception to him was he was saving time. While in reality it was not even close.

It looks like if you want to improve search you would look at IDOL or FAST. Maybe Endeca or Dieselpoint.

Going from Ultraseek to Google Appliance may be just spending $25k? a year to get what you already have.

My guess is if you want to improve results make a big push on educating your web community on good titles, etc. Would have a dramatic impact.

You should download Ultraseek and look thru the admin interface.

]]> By: Anna Belle http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-631 Anna Belle Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:01:20 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-631 Thanks, John. Great feedback. I suspect you are right about Ultraseek and Google Search Appliance being about even, except in one area, and that's public perception. Google branding... wow.... Thanks, John. Great feedback. I suspect you are right about Ultraseek and Google Search Appliance being about even, except in one area, and that’s public perception. Google branding… wow….

]]> By: John http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-597 John Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:44:28 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-597 We have used Ultraseek since March 2000. For years I was pretty certain it was the best choice. Now there are a lot more options in the market such as FAST, so hard to say. I have not done any extensive testing but I view Ultraseek and Google as pretty much equivalent. Looking thru your list above you should download a free 30 day trial of Ultraseek and explore the admin interface. It looks like everything you mention is addressable in the admin interface of Ultraseek. For instance authentication in GSA sounds the same as has been in Ultraseek. You provide user a ID and password within Ultraseek admin interface and the search engine can spider your secure content. Relevance ranking tuning via meta tags has been around in Ultraseek for as long as I can remember. Incidentally, I don't work for Ultraseek. You can go here and download it and experiment with the admin features for 30 days yourself while indexing 25000 documents. http://www.ultraseek.com We have used Ultraseek since March 2000. For years I was pretty certain it was the best choice. Now there are a lot more options in the market such as FAST, so hard to say. I have not done any extensive testing but I view Ultraseek and Google as pretty much equivalent. Looking thru your list above you should download a free 30 day trial of Ultraseek and explore the admin interface. It looks like everything you mention is addressable in the admin interface of Ultraseek.

For instance authentication in GSA sounds the same as has been in Ultraseek. You provide user a ID and password within Ultraseek admin interface and the search engine can spider your secure content.

Relevance ranking tuning via meta tags has been around in Ultraseek for as long as I can remember.

Incidentally, I don’t work for Ultraseek.

You can go here and download it and experiment with the admin features for 30 days yourself while indexing 25000 documents.

http://www.ultraseek.com

]]> By: Anna Belle http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-463 Anna Belle Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:17:58 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-463 Stephen -- Most interesting! Thanks so much. I hadn't heard of QUSA before, and will be sure to pass this along to our group. Stephen — Most interesting! Thanks so much. I hadn’t heard of QUSA before, and will be sure to pass this along to our group.

]]> By: Steven Yaskin http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/comment-page-1/#comment-451 Steven Yaskin Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:04:47 +0000 http://www.happywebdiva.com/2008/09/21/google-search-appliance-under-the-hood-pros-and-cons/#comment-451 Very interesting overview. we just concluded a similar comparison of Ulktraseek, Intkomi and Google GSa for several Fortune-500 corporations. The results were similar to yours, however, we had an unfair advantage going for Google, where GSA was running coupled with QUSA security and relevance enterprise appliance (www.queplix.com/products/universal-enterprise-search/) So our number of results produced by GSA were fewer than get it all Inktomi for example because of default security but a LOT more relevant based on the searcher role within the company and access to various data storages in addition to files. Very interesting overview. we just concluded a similar comparison of Ulktraseek, Intkomi and Google GSa for several Fortune-500 corporations. The results were similar to yours, however, we had an unfair advantage going for Google, where GSA was running coupled with QUSA security and relevance enterprise appliance (www.queplix.com/products/universal-enterprise-search/) So our number of results produced by GSA were fewer than get it all Inktomi for example because of default security but a LOT more relevant based on the searcher role within the company and access to various data storages in addition to files.

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