For my first guest post on the Bamboo Team Blog, I've decided to write about something that has recently excited me in the SharePoint realm. Microsoft has further stepped up its competition with Google this year to provide a more robust enterprise search platform, Microsoft Search Server 2008. The product itself is not brand new, but recent updates have piqued my interest. And although this isn't a SharePoint product per se, it is run completely on the SharePoint framework. We will discuss what this product is and how it applies to your current SharePoint search experience.
But first I need to confess something: I hate configuring search engines. It's not that I don't like search engines. They make our lives infinitely easier when configured correctly (keyword: correctly). But packaging indexing and searching capabilities in SharePoint has always been the bane of my existence, and I'll tell you why. In my experience, many customers who are looking to implement a small or large SharePoint farm do not fully understand what they are getting themselves into. Once the product is delivered to end users, it's not uncommon to find organizations that quickly overrun their initial solution requirements. No problem! SharePoint scales pretty well, so just add the necessary front-end and/or database servers to speed things up. Problem solved, right? Not so in the SEO world! In this scenario, more hardware doesn't fix the central problem. Relevance requires a more advanced level of thinking that only humans can provide ... unless you're a Google algorithm (more on this below).
Modern technology and more specifically, SharePoint, has enabled many of us to attain a broader range of skills. I'm sure most of us can relate to some point in our careers where we were the jack of all trades when it came to anything "technical". I have fond memories of my old boss telling me to fix the microwave, because I simply spend my days "tinkering with computers". It's probably not a stretch to assume that a lot of us have been classified as the server admin, database admin, content admin, security admin and search admin as soon as SharePoint was deployed. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but managing a corporate search engine is generally not a simple task. Although SharePoint has provided a very easy way for us to deploy one, a more intimate knowledge of what's under the hood should be a requirement.
The scope of this article is not to provide a white paper on SharePoint and SEO, but it will briefly contrast the differences between MOSS 2007/MSS 2008 search, how Search Server 2008 improves searching capabilities, and how to communicate these ideas with management. Hopefully this will give you a more rooted look at what Microsoft is doing with search and maybe you can convince your boss that you won't have extra time to remove the jammed trade publications in the paper shredder.
MOSS 2007 Search
Let's start off with something we are all familiar with: Complaints. Once a system is in place, an IT shop can quickly become completely engrossed with responding to complaints rather than adding creative elements to the experience. One of the more common complaints that I hear with MOSS 2007 is that the search features do not work as advertised. These complaints have come from end users and IT teams. To a certain extent this can be true as there are a myriad of options available with SharePoint search that require an intermediate level of research to fully grasp. In the "Google" age, all we have to do is type a few words in a box, and the result set is highly accurate. The English language has even adopted the word "google" as a new verb to describe this action! But Google has one thing that 99.9% of all businesses do not have. And that's a fully-staffed expert team of developers who have written some of the most advanced algorithms I've ever seen. And they have employee roller hockey matches in the parking lot. Give me the latter any day!
Achieving a high level of relevance is not impossible with a small IT team, but there are some things that you should discuss with management before diving in head first. We will discuss some of those things in the last section of this article.
Search Server 2008 & the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Servers
If you haven't had a chance to research Microsoft Search Server 2008, I recommend at least reading the overview from Microsoft. Search Server 2008 was developed to offer enterprise searching capabilities without having to deploy MOSS 2007 or even WSS. Microsoft also released an Express version of the product that is completely free. If you want enterprise searching capabilities without paying for the full version, then this is your product. The biggest difference being that the Express version doesn't offer the high-availability and load-balancing features that the full version does. Other than that, you're basically getting MOSS Search Center for no cost. Again, Search Server is built entirely on the familiar SharePoint platform. You'll get a Central admin site and an SSP just like you are already accustomed to with SharePoint.
But how does this help you if you've already got MOSS running? That's where the much anticipated infrastructure update comes in. The infrastructure update for Microsoft Office Servers brought MOSS and Search Server on a somewhat equal footing. MOSS has greatly benefited from this update as it now has the features that shipped with the RTM version of Search Server 2008.
There are three major features that I want to highlight for Search Server 2008 that you now have access to in MOSS 2007 if you've already updated your site with the infrastructure update. They aren't new search standards, but they are worth highlighting so we at least understand what Microsoft is doing with the product. And I think these features can help silence a lot of the complaints heard with the RTM-iteration of MOSS 2007 search.
Open Search 1.1 - Open Search 1.1 was developed by the folks at A9 to offer "a set of simple formats for the sharing of search results". Open Search has allowed us to add search providers to our browser's search box so we can query any number of engines for a specific result. Open Search may not be a household name, but just about everyone has benefited from Open Search if they're using a modern browser.
Microsoft's inclusion of the Open Search 1.1 standard into SharePoint will allow you to query any Open Search 1.1-compliant engine for results. This greatly reduces the load on your indexing server since you're passing the query to another location and not storing results locally.
Federated Search - Federated Search is a feature that allows for simultaneously connecting to other LOB systems and/or external data sources for information. Federated searching allows you to connect to multiple external locations (without crawling the data) and display the results in one view. If an RSS result set is not available, then you will need to write code to translate the HTML result set to an RSS result set.
The easiest way to familiarize yourself with this feature is to head over to Microsoft's Federated Search connectors page and import some of the locations available there into your site. These connectors don't require any customizations really, so there is no need to worry about the details at the moment. Once you are done importing the location, you can add a Federated Results Web Part to your MOSS Search Center results page or Search Server 2008 results page and the results should display correctly. The only downside to federated searches is that you won't be able to sort the results by relativity since you aren't using your local indexer to grab the results. But you can configure each location to act on triggers so that you aren't enabling your users to search for "higher paying jobs" on the master search page. The below screenshots show the edit mode view of the search results page with multiple federated results web parts and the actual search results page after executing a query.
Search Administration Dashboard - The old search administration section in the SSP was a little cumbersome, so Microsoft has spruced things up a bit here. Just about everything you need is one click away, so I've found this feature to be very useful. They've also added some enhancements to the crawl history, and now you've got an Active Crawls Web Part running on the main dashboard giving you a nice view of what's running behind the scenes.
The old search administration links are still fully functional, but I see no reason not to start using the new dashboard.
With the release of the infrastructure update, Microsoft has bridged the short-lived gap between MOSS and Search Server. Expect similar updates in the future if there are major upgrades to the search features of either product.
Communicating With Management
One of the best ways to open up a dialog with management on this issue would be to preface your pitch with the fact that these features can be had without cross-referencing the budget. If you're already running MOSS, then all you need to do is plan your upgrade strategy for the free infrastructure update. If you are running WSS or haven't made the SharePoint plunge yet, then you can easily install MSSX 2008 for free and with relative ease. Furthermore, there are enough freely available resources out there covering these search features that will allow you to gain a new or improved skill on the subject. But that doesn't mean that you should sell this idea completely to management. As mentioned earlier in this article, SharePoint has caused many IT shops to be overrun with troubleshooting. This generally leaves the organization understaffed for product development and enrichment. And while troubleshooting issues must be addressed, more time spent on product efficiency and usability will reduce the complaint volume. In conclusion, I'll offer 5 tips from my experience that will help with communicating your goals with management and keeping them realistic.
- In the beginning, SharePoint said to keep it simple. Although that is a pretty lame Genesis pun, it should help keep your discussions from the unattainable. SharePoint is one of the best tools that an organization can adopt, but it can quickly turn users off when it doesn't live up to the hype. Keep your search engine simple until you've detailed your strategy with others.
- Define your organizational goals. I recommend meeting with department heads as well as upper management to define the organizations' goals for your search engine. Department heads have their finger on the pulse on a daily basis. They can probably offer a more realistic view of what will benefit users the most.
- Trigger the federation! This is not a distress call to Jean-Luc Picard. Lessen the search results load time by only sending federated searches that are triggered by keywords. This will allow your users to make sure they only search on local indexes if they've typed something generic in the box.
- Plan for the unexpected. In two weeks' time the Dow plunged below 9,000 points, the Miami Dolphins won two games in a row, and Kimbo Slice was knocked out in 14 seconds! Don't overlook the unexpected by not having a contingency plan. If you're planning on indexing a large amount of data, then chances are you'll need to reevaluate your backup procedures and disaster recovery plan. If you're only adding federated searches, then make sure you plan for an increased amount of network traffic if it becomes popular.
- Study SEO. If you can't get your hands on a real live search expert, then read up on SEO as much as possible. Although SEO won't apply to your federated searches, studying SEO best practices can enhance your knowledge of how relevance works. By seeing what is possible on the mainstream engines, it will become apparent that you have significant control over how your local indexes can be manipulated.
Resources
There is a lot of information out there on SharePoint search, Search Server and SEO, but here are several resources that will get you started:
Posted
Oct 14 2008, 03:20 PM
by
Mike Ferrara
Mike Ferrara is the owner of Ferrara Data Consulting, a web development company in South Florida that specializes in Sharepoint consulting. He writes a technical blog that covers various Sharepoint topics such as administration, development, best practices, implementation strategies and new technology.