[thelist] Search alternatives

[Moe Rubenzahl]

Thanks for the replies. I wanted to share something picked up
elsewhere -- a Bay Area consultant who specializes in search engine
technology has a site that is VERY informative:

   http://www.searchtools.com/

The consultant is Avi Rappaport and responded with tons of
information when I filled in the questionnaire on the site. Highly
recommended.
__________________________________________________________________________
Subject: [thelist] Search alternatives
Author: Moe Rubenzahl
Date: 11/13/02 7:44 PM -0800

>I run a large-ish commercial B2B website and am looking for site
>search capabilities.
>
>For some years, I have used Atomz.com for the site search. (This is a
>service provider model -- they crawl the site and index it, then the
>search runs on their servers. Customers can't tell it is not on our
>site). One advantage is that their search is very good. But it is
>missing a few features that would  necessitate moving up to their
>much-more-expensive Enterprise version. And I recently decided to add
>a second account to search our Japanese site and though this second
>one is small (under 1000 pages), they are asking a potload of money
>for such a minor increment ($5000/yr, though they will give me a good
>discount).
>
>So while I am satisfied and would rather stay with Atomz, I need to
>look around.
>
>1. Can anyone recommend another service of Atomz's caliber?
>
>2. How about hosting it myself with either Open Source or purchased
>software? I have enought horsepower in both Linux and Solaris boxes.
>The site is Cold Fusion powered, by the way.
>
>3. Or maybe the Google Search Appliance box? I think it's $20K, but
>with no recurring charges.
>
>Whatcha think?
>
>Moe