I sat in on a webinar today that BAInsight were hosting about SharePoint Search 2010 and FAST Search for SharePoint 2010. The presentation was given at an almost glacial speed by Jeff Fried, who is an enterprise search specialist at Microsoft. He said very little about SharePoint Search 2010 other than it would be much improved, which would not be difficult. It was more about the positioning of FAST Search for SharePoint 2010 (FSS2010 perhaps?) as an enterprise functionality search application which used common APIs, admin screens etc as those used in SP2010 search. In that respect the upgrade to FSS2010 is quite easy from a systems administration perspective even if it does need an Enterprise CAL and there are additional server licences. This is not going to be as inexpensive upgrade. Certainly the power of FAST is well used in some entity extraction applications to give a much more powerful faceted navigation option than the Codeplex web part that is currently being used on MOSS07.

The user interface failed to inspire me. For some reason there is a Ranking number on each hit, which in the example used in the demonstration was around the 12000 mark from memory. In some federated search applications power users may be able to gain some benefit from this parameter but it was interesting when Jeff addressed this question for me at the end of the presentation even he seemed to less than convinced that the parameter was going to be of any value. There is also a way of presenting Visual Best Bets which seems to me to be a classic example of technology push rather than being based on any defined user requirement.  On the other hand being able to scroll through a PowerPoint presentation from the results screen without closing down the screen was neat. How often have you opened up multiple PowerPoint files just to find the one with the clever hexagon diagram and the picture of the corporate HQ?

There is also a lot of potential for role based search, and for user-manipulation of search relevancy parameters. All very nice but getting the best out of a search application is all about investing in the search support team, and on FSS2010 it may not be in the central management but in the training and support that needs to be given to the user community, including a Help Desk staffed by people who can actually help.

To be honest two years down the road from the acquisition I expected more, including a more upfront presentation from Microsoft. The only people who would be listening in to the webinar would have been serious search managers and it would have been nice to have had a more targeted presentation which addressed real world issues. The impression that was given was that FSS2010 was a reverse-engineered solution for customers with a significant commitment to SharePoint who need something better as an enterprise solution but are unwilling to go to the level of specifying exactly what they need. If they did I'm pretty confident they would end up with a smaller Total Cost of Ownership from some other vendors than from the Microsoft offerings.

The Real Story people (CMSWatch as was) have considered the demise of the Linux version and as always Stephen Arnold offers informed insights on SharePoint and search.

Martin White

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