Thunderstone Blog: Customized Search Engine & Search Software

Thunderstone Releases Version 27

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

New search features include

Additional Login Form Flows: Multi step login forms are now supported by our Primer URL settings where there may be several steps required to login to the site, and the forms on intermediate pages may have dynamic or session specific information.
Improved Test Fetch Information: Test Fetch now provides additional information about the Primer URLs used, and response received to assist with setting up complicated login flows.
Metasearch Sorting: Meta search profiles now support sorting on two fields, which is commonly used by Parametric searches.
Other fixes: Miscellaneous other bug fixes and enhancements to the crawl and search interfaces.

Availability

Search Appliance Version 27 is available to all Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance customers who have a current maintenance plan by following the menu System / System Setup / Update Software.

Webinator Version 27 is available to all Webinator customers who have a current maintenance plan by contacting Thunderstone.

For 40 years Thunderstone Software has been dedicated to providing the best search solutions possible to government, corporate, and non-profit customers, with exceptional service and devotion to finding the right solution for the customer.

For further information call +1 216-820-2200, visit www.thunderstone.com.

Thunderstone Releases Version 25

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0500

New search features include

Keep/Ignore Selectors: Keep/Ignore Selectors are specified with a restricted CSS Selector syntax. The default is nav, header, footer. Previous Keep HTML settings are migrated to Ignore Selectors. This provides more flexibility in some cases than the Keep/Ignore HTML Strings (previously called Keep/Ignore Tags) setting.
RDFa/Mircodata Support: RDFa (meta property) and Microdata (meta itemprop) values are now available after fetching a document for use in Data From Field.
Best Bets API: Best Bets are now supported in the Dataload API, and are replicated along with other setttings.
Other fixes: Miscellaneous other bug fixes and enhancements to the crawl and search interfaces.

Availability

Search Appliance Version 25 is available to all Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance customers who have a current maintenance plan by following the menu System / System Setup / Update Software.

Webinator Version 25 is available to all Webinator customers who have a current maintenance plan by contacting Thunderstone.

For further information call +1 216-820-2200, visit www.thunderstone.com.

Comparing Server vs. Hosted Search Solutions

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 14:14:09 -0400

When it’s time to invest in a new search solution, one of the decisions you’ll need to make is whether you want to use an in-house server or Cloud hosting. Each option has advantages and disadvantages, so it’s important to weigh the pros and cons to decide which is right for your organization.

The Pros and Cons of Servers and Hosted Solutions

Utilizing an in-house file server for your search hardware or software offers several advantages, starting with ownership. Installing the search software on an existing server gives you more control of the application and the hardware you use for that solution. This means that you are in control of any hardware resources and backup schedules, whereas those decisions are left to an outside company when you rely on a hosted solution.

Since your server is in-house, you can make modifications to fit your preferences. Of course, this also depends on your level of comfort in terms of installing, updating, and modifying search software. These changes do require familiarity with your server’s operating systems and configurations. If you’re up to the challenge the level of control offered by an in-house server is an attractive option.

Another advantage of an in-house file server is that your content never leaves your premises. This means that nobody outside of your company has to see your information. With a hosted solution, there will be other people who have access to the cloud, and each person with access increases the risk of an unwanted party dealing with your hosted search solution.

While in-house servers offer control, Cloud Services, also known as Software as a Service (Saas), are a lot less work because you rely on a vendor for server infrastructure, availability, and security. Since an outside vendor hosts your search solution for you, you aren’t always on the hook for making regular updates or maintaining the server. When you use an in-house server, you’re the one in charge of making sure it stays up to date – not to mention maintaining both the physical and online security of you server. If the server fails, it’s up to you to fix it, whereas that responsibility falls on your vendor when you host your search solution.

Another big advantage of Cloud Services is scalability. You decide how much space you pay for and scaling up is quick and easy – just pay for more space. When you use your own server, you’ll need the right technical resources to increase server space.

Invest in the Right Search Solution for Your Needs

There isn’t a bad option between utilizing an in-house file server or opting for a hosted solution, but there is a right one for your organization. At Thunderstone, we can work with you to determine which solution is best suited for your needs and provide reliable, easy-to-use search engine software and hardware that can be customized for your needs.

Thunderstone is ready to help your organization take control of its information. Request a demo today to test out our enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to learn more from one of our experts.

How to Prepare and Organize Data and Content for Better Search Through Search Technology

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 08:05:47 -0400

A little organization can make a world of difference for your organization when your users need to access important information. A lack of structure can make it more difficult for your search solution to pull relevant results. For people within your company, bad data organization can result in wasted time and the creation of duplicate files. For external users, it can lead to people leaving your site to find what they need elsewhere.

Finding and accessing your own information shouldn’t be a problem. That’s why it’s important to create some structure for your data and content so that all the information you need is in its right place.

Better Data Organization for Search Solutions

If you have access to structured data, that’s a great place to start. Structured data can make it easy for your organization to find the information you need if you know the correct attributes. While search engine software can crawl unstructured data, the addition of structured data can improve the relevance and precision of results.

An electronic database allows you to create collections of information that are organized and stored for use. The use of a database allows specific users to sort and tag files, text, and other information in a way that improves organization and information retrieval.

One way to prepare and organize your data is to invest in a database management systems (DBMS) based on a relational data model. This setup allows specific users to access and manage relations relation, which are two-dimensional tables that store data about objects, events, and other entities. Relational columns can be organized into certain characteristics, while rows stand for certain files, records, or other data items.

Users with access can then add, update, find, sort, or retrieve data as needed, adding features to the records along the way to improve the relevance of search results or organize files so that they’re only available to certain people. For example, an ecommerce site that sells clothing can organize different items by identifying product characteristics like product color, brand, type of clothing, and other characteristics. These criteria help filter out results that would have appeared from unstructured text. As a result, a user searching for a new pair of shorts won’t be as likely to see results for short sleeve shirts simply because they both use the word “short.”

Structured data also allows you to organize data so that only the right people see certain information. Data items can be tagged with user access so that they don’t end up in results pages for outside users and other people without proper clearance. The right search software can extract structured data from text to enhance the search. Also, the right software can be taught to identify if a file contains specific patterns, for example a credit card number, to constrain the results. As a result, you can set the software to flag those pages to make them more secure. Thanks to this type of advanced logic, it can help you keep your data organized even if a user isn’t there to manually sort something entered into the system.

Invest in Search Engine Software and Appliances That Keep Your Data Organized

Organized data seems like a no brainer, but it does require the right technology to succeed. Text searching and relational database management each rely upon radically different paradigms for organizing and retrieving information, so you need a solution that marries both together.

Thunderstone search engine software and search appliances give you benefits of a SQL relational database (RDBMS) that intelligently queries and manages databases. With our core technology, we can solve even the most complex information retrieval challenges.

Ready to take control of your organization’s information? Request a demo today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to talk to one of our experts about we can help you organize your data.

5 Notable Digital Trends in the Healthcare Industry

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:27:10 -0400

As with many industries, healthcare has made strides to become more digital over the years. This trend has resulted in multiple improvements toward patient care and internal systems, and the push to digitize the healthcare industry isn’t slowing down anytime soon. From new ways to treat patients to improving electronic health records, here are some notable trends in the healthcare industry.

Virtual Care

As technology advances, more healthcare providers have shifted to providing convenient consultations in a virtual or mobile setting. Virtual care offerings like telemedicine and remote patient monitoring devices have led to affordable, effective ways to provide care that’s both convenient to practitioners and patients. As patients and doctors become more tech savvy, virtual care allows doctors and other healthcare professionals to see more patients and give these patients access to experts without having to worry about being in a different location at set times.

Wearables/Internet of Things

Health-based wearable items aren’t a new discovery, but more healthcare organizations are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) and data-sharing devices to help learn more about patients. Wearable devices allow healthcare professionals to track important data in real time whether patients are in a medical facility, at home, or anywhere else. The IoT allows these professionals to then collect that data for and add it to electronic health records and other files that these professionals will need to access to determine treatment methods and make other data-based determinations.

The Cloud

Yahoo Finance estimates that the global healthcare cloud computing market will continue to grow from now through 2026, reaching a $40 billion market value at that time. As the healthcare industry continues to grow, more hospitals and other organizations are turning to move their IT infrastructure off premises and to affordable, scalable hosted search solutions that allow them to free up physical space and cut staffing costs.

Increased Security

As hospitals collect more personal information and invest in more internet connectivity through the internet of things and cloud-based data, the more they need to take cybersecurity seriously. BusinessWire reports that IoT-related data breaches rose from 15 to 26 percent since 2017. As healthcare data becomes more digital – which it will – it’s imperative that the healthcare industry continue to increase security efforts to protect both medical institutions and patients from cyberattacks. As a result, security spending should continue to rise in the healthcare industry.

EHR Optimization

Electronic health record systems are commonplace in the healthcare industry, but more organizations are taking steps to make their data more accessible and interactive. Investments in new data infrastructure, such as databases that can store and retrieve vast amounts of structured data, have allowed organizations to clean up their electronic health records. This shift allows healthcare professionals to easily organize and retrieve information through a database management system – as long as they also have the right search technology to search internal and external information for an entire organization.

Achieve Flexible Data Management Through Enterprise Search Technology

As the medical industry becomes more digital, there will be even more ways to collect and access important information. As a result, it’s increasingly important that healthcare organizations invest in the right search technology so that users always have access to the right information. Not only will this improve interoperability, better access to complete patient information allows healthcare professionals to provide a truly value-based care system for their patients.

For example, flexible data management allows medical practitioners to find what they need right away, whether they’re using a desktop or a mobile device. If a doctor needs to look up drug facts for a patient, they can filter their search to find the right information. Meanwhile, the system can also anonymize information if it recognizes personal information. This allows researchers to reference case information without seeing patient names or other sensitive info in search snippets. It can even block access to certain users to keep your organization compliant with HIPAA.

When you need to achieve flexible data management, Thunderstone can help. Our suite of search engine software and applications features the fully integrated structure of an SQL relational database (RDBMS) that intelligently queries and manages databases of up to hundreds of millions of records. This gives you the ability to store and search massive text documents within standard database table.

Don’t settle for a search solution that doesn’t give you complete access to your data. Request a demo today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to talk to one of our experts about we can help your organization control its information.

The Difference Between Search Software, Hardware, and Other Options

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:17:45 -0400

While a Search Appliance can be an attractive option in many circumstances there are several possible ways to get a search solution depending on your preferences. The different possible delivery methods include hardware-based appliances, software, and service-based models. We’ll look at the different methods that exist and the pros and cons of each to help you make the right decision.

Hardware-Based Search Appliance

The hardware-based search appliance is a popular approach, and maybe the one you had in mind when you started investigating search solutions.

Some of the main advantages are that it is a self-contained solution that you can install in your data center with little effort. As an appliance from a single vendor, you have a single point of contact for any technical issues you may have, so there won’t be any finger pointing between the hardware vendor, operating system vendor, and application vendor. If something goes wrong, a single support call should resolve the problem. Of course, you should make sure that your vendor is equipped to handle your support calls and know how long it will take to fix any problems.

Another key advantage is that you don’t need to provision additional servers to run the application on or worry about incompatibilities between your hardware and operating system and the application. It just works when you take it out of the box and put it in the rack. The flip side of that is if you already have a uniform hardware environment that you like or are moving towards a virtualization environment a separate hardware appliance does not necessarily fit in well.

Virtual Appliance

If you already have a virtualization program under way, then a virtual appliance may be the right solution for you. What is a virtual appliance? Simply put, it is an image of the appliance that you can load onto a virtual server in your virtualization environment. It has all the same features of the hardware appliance.

What are the advantages of the virtual appliance? Similar to the hardware appliance, it is a self-contained image, so you don’t need to worry about operating system or software installs. Since you are providing the hardware for the virtual appliance, you can most likely use existing hardware you have and share it with other services.

In addition, most virtualization environments can also provide fault tolerance, or at least an easy way to restart the image on alternate hardware in the case of hardware failure. If you have sufficient spare capacity, you should not have any down time due to hardware problems. Since you are in control of the hardware, you can allocate as many or as few resources to the search solution to achieve the performance you want.

If you don’t have a current virtualization environment, then the additional learning experience of getting started with one is probably not worth it.

Installed Software

Another option is to install the search software on an existing server. If you are comfortable installing software, then this can be an attractive option, as you get more control of the application. Similar to the virtual appliance, you are in control of the hardware resources you make available to the search solution, as well as the backup schedules.

In addition to being in control of the hardware, you also have more flexibility to modify the solution to meet your needs. The source code to the search application is provided, unlike the appliances which are more of a black box.

The main advantages of the software solution are the control over the application, and the ability to choose the hardware it will run on. The disadvantages are that you do need to be familiar with your server’s operating systems and configurations to choose how to install the software in the most efficient manner possible.

Cloud Services

Cloud Services, also known as Software as a Service (Saas), is one of the hot trends in computing today. Essentially, it means that the vendor is hosting the solution for you, so you only need to worry about integrating the service into your existing infrastructure.

Typically, you can pay on some kind of metered service based on how much you use. This has the advantage of typically being quick and easy to set up and not requiring a lot of technical resources on your end. The downside is that the search data is no longer on your infrastructure, and you are reliant on a third party to keep your service running.

Find the Right Enterprise Search Solution for Your Needs

No matter which type of search solution best fits your criteria, it’s important that whatever you choose makes search simpler – and more powerful – for you and your users. It’s important to pick the right search solution instead of a bad choice at a cheaper price. At Thunderstone, we have decades of experience providing reliable, easy-to-use and maintain search engine software and hardware that can be customized to your specific needs and budget.

Ready to end your search for the right search engine software or hardware? Request a demo today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert and your organization’s search needs.

Why Does a Relational Database Matter for Search Engine Software?

Mon, 13 May 2019 13:15:39 -0400

Relational databases and search engines don’t “marry” easily, which can lead some people to think to two can’t work in tandem. However, that doesn’t mean that relational databases don’t matter for search engines. While difficult, there are ways that can allow you to take advantage of relational databases through your search engine solution.

Why is a Relational Database Beneficial for Search Engine Software?

Most recent DBMSs are based on the relational data model, which is great for handling complicated queries and database operations. The fundamental organizational structure for data in the relational model involves something called a relation, which is a two-dimensional table made up of rows and columns that stores data about entities. These entities are objects or events. For example, a healthcare organization could list patients, doctors, insurance carriers, and services as entities that require data collection.

Relational columns represent specific data characteristics, such as specific attributes or data items patient names, home addresses, and other details. The rows signify records or occurrences. In our medical example, these could be services or actions completed by doctor, patients, and other similar data items. Every record in a given table is unique, which allows relational search to pinpoint these exact rows and make it easier for people to access their information.

Thanks to these qualities, relational databases offer many advantages that can improve the overall quality of search results. They help enable better sorting and filtering options, such as being able to search for results based on product color, manufacturer, or other specific details. It also allows the search to see past basic text when pulling these results. For example, a normal search for red shoes may lead Red Wing boots to appear simply because of the name. With a relational database, the color and manufacturer are separate attributes, which allows for more accurate results based on intent on not basic text.

How Relational Databases Can Benefit Search Engine Software

In a basic sense, databases serve as electronic rolodexes while search engines act as the index of a book. In other words, a good database houses all your information while a search engine can access information within that database. The challenge here is that relational search needs to properly and thoroughly crawl a wide variety of data sources, understand the relationships between them, and provide accurate, relevant results.

Another challenge is that databases can store and retrieve a lot of structured data, but search engines typically query unstructured text. As a result, it’s difficult to properly design a relational database for search, but it’s immensely valuable when done right.

That’s where Thunderstone can help. Our Texis search software is a database management system (DBMS) which follows the relational database model and addresses any inclusion of narrative full text. Because Texis is based on the versatility of open standard SQL, it can address complicated search requirements. It also serves as an "intelligent agent," allowing users to quickly and easily access complicated information, allowing you to take full advantage of complicated relational databases without it harming your ability to search within your organization.

Complicated isn’t a bad thing when you have the right solution. Request a demo today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert about how we can help you harness the benefits of relational search for your organization.

The Need for Flexible Data Management in the Healthcare Industry

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 09:52:41 -0400

Access to information is vital for any business or organization. For the healthcare industry, this access can have life-changing effects. Unfortunately for healthcare providers, researchers, and administrative staff, healthcare organizations don’t always have an effective search solution that allows health workers to efficiently access the information they need to complete crucial tasks or make important decisions.

How bad is the search problem in the healthcare industry? According to a TEDx Talk by Dr. Karl Kochendorfer, some healthcare professionals turn to Wikipedia for vital information instead of official sources because they have such a hard time finding what they need through their organization’s search setup. In addition, Kochendorfer cites that clinicians spend a third of their time simply looking for information.

It shouldn’t be hard for healthcare professionals to find the information they need, but there are many obstacles that stand in the way. High-performance search engine software and search appliances can be part of the solution.

Why Does the Healthcare Industry Need a Better Search Solution?

A massive amount of data without the proper search solution makes for an inefficient, ineffective setup for retrieving key information. Healthcare information takes many forms, all of which play an important role. These can include just about anything that can be documented and stored, such as:

Patient information
Procedural details
Patient care policies
Reference tools and medical literature
Forms
Benefits information

No matter what form these pieces of information take, a single health care organization can amass a massive amount of data that must be available to a wide range of staff. According to the Stanford Medicine 2017 Health Trends Report, “the sheer volume of health care data is growing at an astronomical rate: 153 exabytes (one exabyte = one billion gigabytes) were produced in 2013 and an estimated 2,314 exabytes will be produced in 2020.” Even the medical collection of one doctor can become massive, as the Jeghers Medical Index’s contained a collection of roughly five million physical pages amassed by Dr. Harold Jeghers.

Another issue is that these documents are typically stored in various repositories, such as:

Content management systems
Institutional document libraries
Team sites
Electronic medical record databases
Intranets
Email servers
File systems

As healthcare organizations continue to gather more information, they need to find a way to store new documents with pre-existing files and other data. Given the wide variety of medical subjects and types of files, information is typically stored in separate data silos.

While this system organizes different types of information into logical groupings, it can also create a situation where individuals need to search individual portals to find the right information they need. For example, a silo that contains insurance carrier documentation would likely not allow professionals to parse through notes from doctors and other providers. This scenario can make searches take longer than it should, and that’s if these users are even able to find the information they need. According to ComputerWeekly “it is estimated that knowledge workers spend more than twice as much time recreating content than they spend creating new content” because they can’t find existing files.

That means that healthcare organizations need to invest in high-performance search engine software or hardware that can not only handle hundreds of thousands of files, but also give users the ability to quickly and easily find what they need regardless of where the information is stored.

How Enterprise Search Technology Benefits Healthcare Organizations

Access to information is crucial. A high-performance enterprise search solution gives you the ability to search internal and external information across an entire organization. Enterprise search is designed to parse through a vast array of information found on multiple repositories. This allows different types of users within that organization, such as medical practitioners, administrative staff, and others, to look for and find the information they need.

However, the same user can have different needs depending on the specific search. For example, a doctor searching for drug facts during a patient visit will want different results than one looking up medical literature during lab work. To combat this, custom filtering can be set up so that certain types of results show up depending on the device used, such as a desktop in a research laboratory or an office laptop. In addition, custom filtering can be added to the searches themselves so that users can improve the relevancy of their search results both before and after their initial query.

While enterprise search software allows user to quickly and easily search for information, the technology behind it is far more complex. Enterprise search technology actively organizes information found in multiple repositories through metatagging, taxonomies, and categorization. This process creates a searchable index from various repositories. This enables the search software to logically find information for future queries so that users receive relevant information both quickly and efficiently.

Part of the reason enterprise search software makes it easier for users to find what they need is the types of searches it allows them to do. A customizable thesaurus feature allows organizations to improve the effectiveness of terminology that is more common to their industry. This can help improve the relevance of results by tying in generalities, associated phrases, acronyms, spelling variations, or other appropriate word associations. For the healthcare industry, this can help clear up issues when professionals search for a brand name drug or a generic drug, procedure names, medical abbreviations, or any other healthcare-specific terminology.

Enterprise search can also improve the effectiveness of searches involving statistics or data ranges. If a healthcare professional had a specific question or needed to find a certain data point, enterprise search would be able to parse through relevant literature and studies to yield appropriate results.

Another issue is that some information should only be accessible to certain users. Whether it’s due to HIPAA, meaningful use, or any other reason, certain documents should only be findable by certain individuals. HIPAA in particular requires a search solution that protects patient record from the wrong people. For example, even a search snippet can accidentally reveal patient names, so it’s important to invest in a solution that can anonymize these snippets and keep files accessible only by approved users. Enterprise search can be designed to give and remove access to certain repositories to different classes of users, whether it’s an admin level user or a member of the public.

How Thunderstone Solves Search Issues for Healthcare Organizations

Of course, the success of an enterprise search solution is only as good as the technology is uses. Thunderstone offers a suite of search solutions It is the only search engine software available with the fully integrated structure of an SQL relational database (RDBMS) that intelligently queries and manages databases containing:

Natural language text
Standard data types
Geographic information
Images
Video
Audio
Other payload data

In addition, Thunderstone offers search engine software solutions that can handle databases with tens of millions of large records and even hundreds of millions of records and can store and search text documents of unlimited size within standard database tables.

Another issue is that medical documents can contain specific language not found in typical files. Thunderstone search solutions have an English language vocabulary of up to 250,000 word and phrase concept associations for natural language queries, as well as excellent proximity control, fuzzy searches, true regular expression matching and written numerical value searches for even more refined, accurate searches.

In short, Thunderstone enterprise search technology gives healthcare organization the power to handle massive amounts of data and the flexibility to manage their needs. If you’re in need of a search solution that allows gives your organization the ability to access your data when your users need it, request a demo today to test our technology for yourself or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert and your organization’s search needs.

What is the Difference Between a Database and a Search Engine?

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 14:22:28 -0500

The lines between a database and a search engine aren’t always clear. For the average user, this may not be something they ever consider, but some clarity is beneficial for any business trying to solve any search challenges. Here’s a quick rundown on the differences between a database and a search engine.

What is a Database?

In short, a database is a collection of information that is organized and stored to be accessed for later use. As an example, a manual version of a database would be like a rolodex with specific fields of information. In this scenario, information is recorded on sheets of paper, possibly organized in folders, and stored in a single place where people with access can go and retrieve that information when necessary.

An electronic database operates largely the same way, except all this data is structured to ease of organization and information retrieval. This database is accessed and managed by specific users through a database management system (DBMS). Users with access can then add, update, find, sort, or retrieve data as needed.

What is a Search Engine?

If a database is like a rolodex, then search engines are more like the index of a book—except that it’s a collection of every index for every book you have. Databases and search engines are both capable of search for data and handling queries. Each technology relies on different paradigms to organize and retrieve information. While databases can store and retrieve a vast amount of structured data, search engines can search unstructured text.

Search engines vary greatly in scope. If you ask the average person about search engines, he or she will think of Google and Bing as examples. However, search engines also apply smaller-scale full-text search software, such as those for online publishing, interactive catalogs, classified advertising, digital asset management, intelligence and web searching.

Search engine software makes the process of retrieving relevant information much easier by allowing users to search for information with natural language text. The results will then be organized by relevance, which can include text documents, geographic information, images, video, audio, and other payload data.

Why Not Have Both?

While databases and search engines don’t “marry” easily, there is technology available that offers a true marriage of the two. Thunderstone’s search engine software and search appliances give users the benefits of both thanks to Texis, the core technology for all Thunderstone products.

Texis is the first search engine software available with the fully-integrated structure of an SQL relational database (RDBMS) that intelligently queries and manages databases. This is due to Thunderstone’s Metamorph, a concept-based natural language search engine that uses advanced lexical set logic to intelligently understand search queries and retrieve relevant responses.

Whether your business needs a solution for complex information retrieval challenges or a hosted search appliance, Thunderstone can help. Request a demo for one on Thunderstone’s search engine software today or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert about how Texis technology can be a solution for your search challenges.

What is Enterprise Search?

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 07:50:26 -0500

Information is great until you can’t find it. Over time, businesses and organizations collect a lot of content and data necessary to run a business and drive profits. Unfortunately, all that information isn’t going to help if nobody can find what they need. That’s why organizations invest in enterprise search software and appliances to quickly and easily secure enterprise-wide information.

What Makes Enterprise Search Different from Other Types of Search?

While some types of search can only parse individual repositories, Techopedia defines enterprise search as “a system that facilitates enterprise data research through one or more sources.” Enterprise search is designed to be able to parse through the vast array of information found on multiple repositories to make it easy for different types of users within that enterprise to look for and find the information they need. These sources commonly include:

File systems
Document management systems
Databases
Intranets
Email

This ability to locate information from multiple repositories is key because it saves users from having to dig through multiple sources to find what they need. This is extremely helpful even if they know which repository houses the information they need. When they’re not sure where it’s stored, it becomes an incredible time saver.

How Does Enterprise Search Work?

Enterprise search software does more than simply search for information. It actively organizes the information found in multiple repositories through means such as metatagging, taxonomies, and categorization to efficiently find and produce results. The search will crawl the various repositories to create a searchable index so that it can logically find information for future queries. From there, a user will use a search interface, such as a search box, and enterprise search will pull results that match the intent of the submitted query and present them in a formatted list.

A big part of why enterprise search can index vast collections of data and provide good results is through advanced technology. For example, Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions are powered by Texis, an innovative platform that allows organizations to incorporate their own unique knowledge and expertise into customized search solutions.

At the heart of Texis is Metamorph, a concept-based natural language search engine that utilizes advanced lexical set logic. This gives our solutions the ability to provide relevant responses based on user queries, improve autocomplete suggestions, and find other patterns that improve the overall search experience. Since Texis is a search engine that’s developed as a fully-integrated SQL RDBMS optimized for full-text search, it can store and search text documents of unlimited size within standard database tables, in addition to unstructured text, making it extremely beneficial for enterprises with lots of data.

Thunderstone originally developed Texis as the engine to power custom search solutions, with tools for combining structured and unstructured data, real-time updates, large collections, and complex business rules all in one package. Texis gives developers a chance to combine their specific skills and expertise with a powerful search engine. Through Texis, these experts can easily incorporate their knowledge into customized search solutions.

A good enterprise search solution can be the difference between being able to efficiently access important data and lost information. Request a demo today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search solutions for yourself or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert and your organization’s search needs.

What is Faceted Search?

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 07:48:10 -0500

Faceted search is a powerful feature in modern search engines that makes it easy for users to find exactly what they need. This technology is a great feature for e-commerce site searches and other applications where it’s important to provide outside users with a streamlined search experience that can deliver customized results.

How Does Faceted Search Work?

Faceted search is based on structured data. Through guided navigation, searchers can use facets (or filters) to refine their queries. These facets are sets of independent attributes determined by the administrator to help classify the entries found within a searchable collection. This is extremely beneficial, especially compared to a more rigid classification scheme like a taxonomy that corresponds to only a single top-level attribute.

Faceted search vs. single taxonomies

While single taxonomies force users to choose a top-level group, faceted classification gives searchers a more flexible approach to finding specific items. For example, a single taxonomy for a dog food company might choose a top-level attribute that corresponds to either the type of dog food (dry, wet, etc.) or the type of dog (small dogs, big dogs, senior dogs, etc.), but not both. That means a taxonomy based on types of dog foods will still force a user to sift through results for all types of dogs without narrowing down the selections even further.

Faceted search can mark these search attributes as first-class facets. Users are now able to use a variety of filters to refine searches, whether these queries involve the type of dog food, type of dog, size of product, price, or any other factor that could narrow down a search. These stackable filters offer results that are much more relevant to a user with a highly-specific need instead of overwhelming them with too many unrelated products.

Is faceted search the right fit?

When dealing with a significant amount of possible search results (whether from a database, on a website or across multiple data sources), adding faceted search can help a user find what they’re looking for quicker. It may not be the right choice for smaller data sets.

On e-commerce sites, faceted navigation can help a user search for a product and quickly narrow down what they’re looking for.

Implementing faceted search

When implementing faceted search, it’s important to make sure the number of facets shown to the searcher is appropriate. Too few can be limiting in how specific a user can narrow down their search results, however too many facets can present a user with too many choices and not enough results within each facet category.

Before you add faceted search to your application, you’ll want to consider how you’ll be identifying and classifying the facets themselves. Within a large data set, what are the categories, filters, or “facets” that can help narrow down search results? For enterprise applications, this may start with file type (document, image, etc.) For an e-commerce site, this might mirror the ways that product would be organized in-store (category, color, size. etc.).

Faceted Site Search for Your Business

Thunderstone’s Parametric Search Appliance provides you with a highly customizable e-commerce site search system with faceted search, autocomplete and other capabilities that help you deliver relevant results to your users.

Parametric search (also called attribute-enhanced search) helps users narrow down their field of search to increase the chances of finding relevant information. It provides context to results that are based on unstructured information, and it allows the administrator or user to sort results in the most meaningful way.

Request a free trial of today to test out Thunderstone’s enterprise search products for yourself or contact us to talk to a Thunderstone expert about your organization’s search needs.

Case Study: Thunderstone Helps JMI Manage its Large Collection of Medical Documents

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 11:22:36 -0400

Who We Helped

The Jeghers Medical Index (JMI) is a medical library in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital (SEYH). The JMI maintains Dr. Harold Jeghers’ collection of approximately one million historical medical journal articles that date from the late 1800s to the 1990s.

Their Challenge

After decades of amassing medical articles, JMI’s collection had grown to roughly five million physical pages, which filled more than 165 cabinets. As JMI began to digitize its collection, it was apparent that a flexible data management system that specialized for storage and searching was necessary. The professionals at JMI considered and compared several data management vendors on the following criteria:

Cost
Relevance
User interface
Methodology
Location of corporate headquarters
Willingness to customize software

After weighing all these factors, they decided that Thunderstone and TEXIS, its fully-integrated, full text search engine software platform, was the best fit for their project.

Thunderstone’s Solution

The TEXIS system is capable of hosting and managing a large collection of documents online. For JMI, TEXIS manages roughly one million articles.

With this much available information, Thunderstone wanted to provide several ways for users to find what they needed from JMI. This process included a custom search to match OCR information from hand annotated copies of articles to add key elements like PubMed XML citations and a table of anatomic terms that Jeghers created for TEXIS so that their users could find relevant articles from the original collection. Thunderstone also programmed TEXIS to offer JMI users three different search options to assist in article retrieval.

Boolean Logic

This option is patterned around search and retrieval behaviors like PubMed, an archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. Users can use this search method to query based on the author, title, journal, abstract, and medical subject headings (MeSH).

Proximity Search

The proximity search option retrieves articles based on the occurrences of terms and location of words in sentences, paragraphs, pages, or documents. Proximity search can extract concepts contained in articles by using the relationships between words and the clustering of words with concepts to its advantage.

Jeghers Indexing

A third search option is based on the indexing method developed by Dr. Jeghers himself. This search relies on concepts such as disease, organ system, physiology, and anatomy to retrieve folders containing articles close to the search subjects.

After users made a query, the display results offered more options to organize the bibliographic data if they wanted to pare down their search even further. At this point, users can list results by various facets, including year of publication, study type, or with or without abstracts. Once a document or documents are found, the user may request a fair use copy from a JMI librarian.

What Happened

As a collection of historical medical articles, the JMI allows medical professionals, professors, and students to glean more information about the past. Since the addition of TEXIS, JMI has noticed an increase in usage of the collection, with more than 2,000 hits or searches recorded over the course of a year. JMI searches are not restricted to SEYH staff, as the database is utilized by people across the world.

While the project took hundreds of hours of work to gather and upload the collection, TEXIS now has helped JMI turn into a compact, low-maintenance collection that is curated by a single full-time librarian. Since shifts in health care terms, meanings, and concepts can impact retrieval accuracy, Thunderstone can make ongoing changes to JMI’s TEXIS platform to help it improve results retrieval over time.

Work with Thunderstone Today

If your organization has a big project that requires accurate, effective search results, Thunderstone can help. Learn more about our search engine software and appliances and contact us today to talk to one of our experts about how Thunderstone can help you solve your search problems.

Thunderstone Releases Version 20

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:00:00 -0500

New features include

Rank Bias: Parametric profiles gain new capabilities to set a bias on a per document field using data from field rules. This allow documents to be biased up or down in the search results, for example PDF results could be biased down, or documents with "Important" in a meta tag could be ranked higher.

Improvements

Content Repositories: Azure Blob Storage support was added for crawling content stored in Azure Blobs.
File Share Robustness: Network shares are remounted if needed at the start of a crawl.
Audit Logging: The ability to log all setting modifications was added to aid with auditing setting changes.
Other fixes: Miscellaneous other bug fixes and enhancements to the crawl and search interfaces. See the announcement on the message board for full details.

Availability

Search Appliance Version 20 is available to all Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance customers who have a current maintenance plan by following the menu System / System Setup / Update Software.

Webinator Version 20 is available to all Webinator customers who have a current maintenance plan by contacting Thunderstone.

For 36 years Thunderstone Software has been dedicated to providing the best search solutions possible to government, corporate, and non-profit customers, with exceptional service and devotion to finding the right solution for the customer.

For further information call +1 216-820-2200, visit www.thunderstone.com.

Case Study: Thunderstone Provides a Suite of Flexible Search Solutions for Agency’s Clients

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 13:08:30 -0500

Who We Helped

Aztek is a Cleveland-based web design, development, and digital marketing agency with several clients in need of new search software and hardware products.

Their Challenge

As an agency, Aztek works with multiple clients. Each of these clients have different search needs, ranging from basic site keyword search to complicated ecommerce or other custom database solutions. That meant that Aztek needed a partner that was flexible enough to provide search solutions designed for different clients and platforms.

Another key was that these solutions needed to meet each individual client’s expectations and be cost effective. Through Thunderstone, Aztek could achieve these goals and save themselves from having to identify and work with multiple search solution vendors or take on that responsibility themselves.

Our Solution

The short answer is simple; we provided Aztek’s customers with the wide range of quality search solutions that we’re known for. For example, we used Parametric Search Appliance because it has all the everything that 95 percent of clients would need in a search solution, whereas Texis is used where fully-customized solutions are needed.

Since each client is different, we developed a template to determine a client’s search needs and simplify the implementation process. This process identifies the site, applicable domains, and how the results need to be organized. These details allow us to follow up with any additional questions and determine an appropriate solution. Aztek also doesn’t have to worry about compatibility issues because our search software and hardware works with most major CMS platforms their clients use, such as Umbraco, nopCommerce, WordPress, and many others.

Another key part of our solution is hosting and managing the search solution so that Aztek doesn’t have to deal with recreating, reindexing, and rehousing all their clients’ search data. Instead, they receive the final search results directly from us. Aztek also doesn’t have to maintain another server or deal with unfamiliar technology, which is one less thing for them to worry about.

What Happened

Since the partnership began, Thunderstone has helped several of Aztek’s clients, with many more projects currently in process or planned for the future. This has led to clients receiving everything from a new hosted search appliance to a current project involving an extensive database of old catalogs.

Another big advantage of the partnership for Aztek is how it frees them from the responsibility of having to deal with new technology. With Thunderstone, Aztek doesn’t have to worry if software is being updated or who to turn to if there’s an issue. They can share any concerns with us and we can work with them to fix problems or work through new client scenarios. We don’t just supply them with a solution; we work with them to ensure that their clients’ needs are met long after initial implementation.

What Aztek Says About Us

“There’s no ‘it is what it is’ with Thunderstone. Some of the other search solutions we looked at had issues indexing PDFs or issues due to outdated technology, or platform compatibility problems. Working with developers who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of many platforms or who don’t actively update software can be challenging. With Thunderstone, it’s the complete opposite end of the spectrum. We have someone who we can work with, share concerns with, make customizations and is completely invested in the success of our work.” – Keith Rowe, Chief Technology Officer

Work with Us Today

If your company needs proven search solutions for you or your clients, we can help. Learn more about our search engine software and appliances and contact us today to talk to one of our experts about what we can do for your business.

Case Study: BioThane Finds the Right Google Site Search Replacement Through Thunderstone

Tue, 19 Dec 2017 12:02:43 -0500

Who We Helped

BioThane is an American, family-owned manufacturer of coated webbing and assemblies. These materials and products are used for a wide variety of markets, ranging from military and safety applications to dog collars.

Their Challenge

The BioThane website contains a lot of valuable information for users in need of coated webbing. The company offers a wider variety of products that differ in terms of size, look, hardness, durability, and flexibility. All these factors can make it tricky for a user to identify a specific product by a specific characteristic without a good site search. This search function also needs to be able to pull appropriate services pages, blog posts, and other pages that would be relevant to a user’s queries.

Another issue was that BioThane was using Google Site Search, which will shut down April 1, 2018. BioThane wasn’t interested in using the company’s free site search that would potentially serve competitor ads on their site, so they needed to find an appropriate replacement without having to increase their search budget by too much.

Our Solution

Fortunately for BioThane, Thunderstone has options for businesses trying to replace Google Site Search. We helped them change over to a hosted search appliance built on the Thunderstone Texis platform, which gave them a fully-integrated, full-text search foundation that provides their users the ability to get search results that are relevant to their initial queries. This new platform is also extremely flexible, so BioThane can implement new search functionality over time if the need arises. Also, they got all of this without having to break the bank for a replacement site search.

Improve Your Site Search

Are you in need of a Google Site Search replacement? Learn more about our search engine software and appliances and contact us today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help you.

Case Study: Parametric Search Appliance Helps Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve Prioritize Product Results

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:54:29 -0400

Who We Helped

Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve, a family-owned manufacturer of all-natural soaps, shampoo bars, and skin care products in Northeast Ohio. While Chagrin Valley products can be found in several stores in Ohio, most people order their products online and have them shipped to their homes.

Their Challenge

Chagrin Valley was facing a pair of big changes. One, they were in the midst of a new website redesign. Two, the old Chagrin Valley site used Google Site Search, so they needed to find a replacement option since the company did not want to have ads for competitors’ products displayed on their search feed. This new search solution needed to serve their specific needs so that their new website had a strong search function for all their online customers.

One of Chagrin Valley’s challenges is that they have both a lot of product pages and educational pages on their site. In the past, Chagrin Valley customers would complain that some searches would not display the products they were searching for, making it difficult for users to buy what they wanted. However, both products and educational posts were very important to Chagrin Valley, so they needed a solution that would ensure that searches would always populate appropriate products in addition to blog posts and other pages.

Another key element of the project is that the new search solution had to be compatible with Umbraco, Chagrin Valley’s content management system for their new site. Chagrin Valley had looked for some options but were having trouble finding a solution that would integrate seamlessly with Umbraco.

Our Solution

Since both products and educational pages were important to Chagrin Valley, Thunderstone configured its Parametric Search Appliance so there were two sets of search results for every query.

If a user searched for a product like adzuki bean soap or an issue like dry skin, the first listings he or she would see would be products most closely related to that search. However, Thunderstone added a second results field on the same page. This second bucket of search results is located below products and displays any related blog posts and other types pages related to the subject.

Chagrin Valley customers had also become accustomed to seeing images of each product in the search results, and the Thunderstone Parametric Search Appliance ensures that each result is displayed with an image and a description of each product, allowing users to find exactly which products they’re looking for.

What Happened

Thunderstone worked with Chagrin Valley to set up their search solution in time for the launch of their new website. This particular project only took a couple of days to set up, as the Parametric Search Appliance easily integrated with Chagrin Valley’s Umbraco CMS. So far, customers have been able to easily find what they need on the new site through the search function.

Chagrin Valley is just one of many businesses who have benefited from Thunderstone search solutions. Learn more about our search engine software and appliances and contact us today to talk to one of our experts about Thunderstone can help you.

Integrating Advanced Search on your Website

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 13:36:28 -0400

Is your search solution actually doing its job? Some common problems caused by inadequate search software includes:

Search results aren’t showing in the right order of importance or value
Search results can’t show mixed content like products, blog content and page content
Search results don’t have the appearance you’d like them to have

So why would you like a better search solution? It helps educate you users with the right information. It directs them towards products that they want to buy. It ultimately provides a better user experience for them. With simple search solutions like Google’s soon-to-be-discontinued Google Site Search, there is very limited customization that you can make to deliver the best results to your users. The solution to this challenge is implemented a smarter, more customizable custom search appliance on your website.

Sound complicated? It’s actually easier than you think when you have an expert like Thunderstone walking you through the process. Based on our 30-plus years of experience with search solutions, the typical steps involved with integrating an advanced search appliance within your website are:

Identify What Should Be Included in Search Results

The benefit of a more advanced search box like Thunderstone’s Search Appliance is that you’re able to customize what should be indexed in search results. Thus, you can include things like

page content
blog posts
products
documentation pages
media like images and videos
FAQ’s
data from other database sources

Determine Search Results Appearance

Consider how you’d like the search results to appear to users. With a basic website search engine, results are pulled purely by keyword relevancy, and the results can’t be styled. With an advanced website search engine like Thunderstone’s Search Appliance, search results can be customized in terms of order and design of appearance.

Website Search Results Customization

For websites that feature multiple types of content, multiple subdomains, e-commerce and many other unique website setups, basic website search is not ideal. Some examples of customizations that you may want to make to search results include:

Selecting only specific pages or types of content/data that you would like to be indexed and shown to users
Ranking pages based on their importance to your organization, and their relevancy to the user
Sorting and separating different pieces of content in search rankings
Leveraging a thesaurus function to group similar results together

Website Search Results Design

Once again, with a basic website search engine, the appearance of the search results are going to likely include the title of the page, a short description, and potentially an image. But for more advanced websites, this can be very limiting in delivering the right results to the user. Customizing search results design can be useful when:

Delivering product or e-commerce results to the user, including images, pricing, and product options
Showing search results for media, including photos and videos
Showing more in-depth documentation that may include technical files, publish dates, etc.
Delivering autocomplete results in a search box for a better user experience

Embed a Search Box on Your Site

Embedding a search box on your website is simple for any web designer or developer to achieve. Whether you have an existing search box that needs to be replaced, or need to integrate a brand-new search box within your site, Thunderstone’s implementation is simple.

When it comes to search box design considerations, UX Planet has a few recommendations:

Display the search field prominently, including on mobile devices
Provide a button for the search box rather than an icon that may be confusing
Put the search box on every page
Put the search box where users expect to find it, typically in the top righthand corner of the page
Size the search box appropriately, usually allowing at least 27 characters of text input

Thunderstone for Better Site Search

The Thunderstone Search Appliance is a web indexing device that allows a web site administrator to provide a high quality search results for a number of different file types with a customized search results appearance. If your current website search engine isn’t delivering the results you want (or your users need), then check out Thunderstone’s Search Appliance, or contact us today for a demo.

What the Engineering Industry Needs to Consider When Investing in an Enterprise Search Solution?

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 13:16:02 -0400

As an engineering firm grows, it’s critical that it has a good internal search solution. At first, it’s easy to find information from one of a dozen or so projects. Over time, you gain more projects, which can lead to hundreds of thousands of highly technical files within a basic file storage structure. That’s why it’s critical that engineering firms find a search solution that is designed to address the issues that complicate the search process and provide the right results for their users.

Specific Search Solution Issues for Engineering Firms

Engineering firms face a few main challenges when it comes to search solutions. This includes the variety of searches engineers can make, as well as the overall technical nature of the business.

There are a variety of reasons why engineers would use the search function on their site. They could be looking for specific information from one of hundred, or even, thousands, of documents. They may just need some general background research on a certain field or application. They might also just be looking for a project example to use as a template or as guidance for putting a new document together.

Another problem is that in engineering, everything can be technical. These engineering documents can contain extremely detailed information and unique jargon that can create issues for an inadequate search solution. The files used at an engineering firm can go beyond the usual text files and PDFs, making it necessary for search solutions to parse through CAD files and other specific document types. In addition to the technical nature of the files and vocabulary, a search solution will also have to work with the engineering company’s internal conventions for file names and directories.

Search Appliance Solutions for Engineers

Fortunately for engineers, Thunderstone can engineer a search solution that addresses their specific issues. This starts with addressing a few critical details.

To start, a search solution for an engineering firm should utilize file format plugins for unique document types. This can help the search identify unique design files and other special items that other businesses may not rely on for their work. With these special document types, it’s also important that a search solution can use the firm’s directory structure to help with the overall search.

Due to the technical jargon in engineering, a good search solution should also be able to parse through the actual language that engineers use. The addition of a thesaurus feature helps an engineering firm’s search software find the right files based on terms that employees use, while a synonym system allows the search solution to display the right results based on the user’s intent, even if they don’t quite use the exact right terms found in the document.

One great solution for engineering firms is Thunderstone’s Parametric Search Appliance. This solution can address all the previously mentioned issues and help your results display the most relevant authors, projects, and documents that apply to your user’s search. Parametric search is also flexible, powerful, and easy to use, allowing us to customize the solution to optimize it for your setup.

We work with you to find the search solution you need. Contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 to start our three-step head start program to get a customized search solution that truly fits your needs.

What the Education Industry Needs to Consider When Investing in an Enterprise Search Solution

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:04:47 -0400

It can be difficult to find the right search solution for a college, university, or other educational institution so that users can gather the information they need to succeed. The right search solution affects multiple types of users, including current students, prospective students, their parents, and anyone who works at the affected institution, so it’s critical to find a search option that can cater to all these parties.

Specific Search Solution Issues for Educational Institutions

Thanks to a wide range of users, educational institutions can amass a hodge-podge of different sites. These can include main “marketing” sites, individual department sites, and student/faculty pages. This assortment of sites with different functions and capabilities can prove problematic for search functions.

Another issue is that these sites can be targeted to different types of users. The marketing site can be directed toward prospective students and their parents. Student and faculty pages may be designed for use of a group of people with individual logins. Each one of these sites need to provide its users with results that match their intent. For example, a “marketing” site should help users find information on the school itself, whereas an internal login for the school library’s site should returns results for documents, books, and other files in the library’s database.

Along with the wide variety of sites, there’s also the possibility that different departments might run their own sites. This means that the institution needs a search solution that is powerful enough to handle many files, as well as flexible enough to match the needs of each different department and its users.

Search Appliance Solutions for College and University Sites

With the wide range of potential sites and users, a high-performance search solution that can allow multiple administrative users is in order. In this setup, these users can be delegated permissions on specific areas of the index or specific settings. For example, a College of Medicine might administer its own search while still feeding results into the main University Search. There could also be a situation where one user may be responsible for the look and feel of a search while somebody else oversees the actual crawling of the search.

The range of potential sites and audiences can also be addressed with the ability to promote particular pages for specific searches, including custom messages in the search results page. For example, a search for “Admissions” could link to the appropriate page with a specific message with it, or a search for the sports team could show the latest scores or schedule. That will provide each audience with customized results that can improve their overall search experience.

If you need powerful customizable search solutions for your school, Thunderstone can help. High-performance solutions like our parametric search appliance or the highly-customizable Webinator web index and retrieval software can help your users find what they need, no matter which one of your sites they’re using. Contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 to start the process of getting a customized search solution that’s built for your institution’s needs.

Thunderstone Releases Version 19

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0400

New features include

Entity Recognition: Parametric profiles gain new capabilities to extract information from document text. Now even documents with no metadata can contribute terms to faceted navigation, via entity recognition. For example, a list of terms, e.g. cities or manufacturers, can be defined for extraction and then searched or grouped by. Or a regular expression can be crafted to match a specific pattern of data — e.g. a defined syntax for part or social security numbers. And the XML syntax for such entities is largely compatible with GSA syntax, making upgrading a snap.

Improvements

Dashboard Statisitics: Several new statistics have been added to help monitor activity, including the search rate, fetch rate, and document growth rate so you can identify problems that may arise in the future.
Unmount Shares: Network shares can now be unmounted without removing the settings.
XSS Protection fix: Browsers may have warned on the settings page about possible XSS problems. There was no vulnerability in the appliance, and the settings were updated correctly, however now the XSS warnings no longer are triggered.
Other fixes: Miscellaneous other bug fixes and enhancements to the crawl and search interfaces including result counts and some REX expression handling. See the announcement on the message board for full details.

Availability

Search Appliance Version 19 is available to all Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance customers who have a current maintenance plan by following the menu System / System Setup / Update Software.

Webinator Version 19 is available to all Webinator customers who have a current maintenance plan by contacting Thunderstone.

For further information call +1 216-820-2200, visit www.thunderstone.com.

Everybody Sets Up Websites Differently: The Case for Custom Search Engine Software

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:53:35 -0400

Websites are like people in that they can be very different. It can be a struggle to find a single solution that works perfectly for everyone. Even trying to decide on where to go to dinner can turn into a complicated mess. While websites don’t get hungry, it isn’t safe to assume that a single search solution will work out just fine for every situation.

Just like parents help shape their children, developers have a huge impact in the makeup of their websites. Everybody sets up their websites differently, which can lead to challenges when it comes to adding search functions to a site. Some professionals may try to simply plug in a search solution and hope it works well enough, whereas custom search engine software can be tailored to fit an individual site.

Why it Makes Sense to Use Custom Search Engine Software

First, let’s recognize that there is no true standard when it comes to a search solution. There are simple plug-and-play options that can offer a few basic functions, but they won’t work for every site. Everybody uses their own conventions or standards, so even these basic search solutions aren’t guaranteed to work on your website.

Like the rest of the website, the search needs to be thought of with the user in mind. What can you do to present the content they need most? Making use of these various conventions and standards including where the site pulls its meta data from or which parts of the site need to be excluded from indexing can dramatically improve the search experience. These answers are going to change site to site, but a so-called standard search engine software may not have the flexibility to deliver the best search you could have.

On the other hand, the customized search solution can be tailored to fit your needs. Thunderstone’s suite of custom search engine software allows you to select a search solution that can seamlessly integrate with your site’s conventions and allow you to provide reliable search functions that deliver better results, not just acceptable ones.

The Thunderstone Difference

At Thunderstone, we don’t just offer a single solution that will hopefully meet your requirements. Our search solutions are built to be flexible enough to be able to handle different site conventions, and our expertise allows us to help clients figure out solutions quickly instead of having them fumble around trying to do it themselves.

We can crawl your website to discover potential issues that may affect your search solution. Our Head Start Program also starts with a conversation that allows our experts to discuss your project and your goals so that we can assess your needs and customize our search engine software to your needs. We also provide ongoing support once your search solution is in production.

Contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 to start the process of getting a customized search solution that truly fits your site.

Find a Google Search Appliance Replacement Before It’s Too Late

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:28:12 -0400

It’s been over a year since Google announced that they were discontinuing their Search Appliance product, with license renewals officially ending in 2018. While Google Search Appliance is on the way out, there are still many businesses that rely on it for their search. If you’re with a company or organization that does, you should probably start seriously thinking about other options.

Depending on your contract, you only have one or two years of service left. While that sounds like plenty of time, it can fly by when you get wrapped up in work and leave you scrambling to find a proper Google Search Appliance replacement.

It's Time to Replace Google Search Appliance

Have you ever had to scramble to find a gift for someone at the last second? Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. You don’t want to have hope that a last-minute search appliance decision is going to pan out for your site.

The simple truth is that the more time you have to find a Google Search Appliance alternative, the better choice you can make. You’ll be able to take a stock of what capabilities you need to find in a replacement and do a comprehensive search of your available options. Extra time will also allow you to do test runs of potential Google Search Appliance replacements so you get hands-on experience before you decide.

Time also allows you to reevaluate what you want to get out of your search appliance solution. There may have been elements of Google Search Appliance that you didn’t like, or features you wish it had. Your search for a Google Search Appliance replacement can help you find options that can better fit your needs instead of just mirroring what Search Appliance did.

A Google Search Appliance Replacement Alternative Through Thunderstone

If you’re looking to move on from Google Search Appliance, Thunderstone can help. We provide search technology that can help you fill the Google Search Appliance-shaped hole in your site. In fact, we can do better than just replace it.

We offer solutions like our Thunderstone Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance for professionals in need of a straightforward drop-in replacement. Our Webinator search engine software and Texis enterprise search options can provide more complex solutions based on needs, allowing you to invest in a search solution that checks all the boxes on your wish list.

To find out what solution makes sense for your needs, it’s best to talk to an expert. Contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 to learn more about how we can help you replace Google Search Appliance before goes out for good.

Why Switching to Free Google Site Search is a Bad Idea for Business

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 10:19:42 -0400

When Google announced that their site search product would be completely discontinued by April 1, 2017, the news put a lot of businesses in a bind. Now businesses with Google Site Search will have until the end of their license to decide to switch to Google’s free replacement option – Google Custom Search – or make the switch to a different site search product.

The easy switch to free Google Custom Search may be tempting, but there are serious drawbacks that may hurt your business or organization. Here are three reasons why you shouldn’t opt for Google’s free version of site search.

Google Custom Search Has Ads

Google Custom Search is free for a reason. This free site search is funded by the appearance of ads. This is a major problem.

The point of a site search is to allow your users to find relevant information on your site. Google Custom Search can do that, but not before it shows your users a bunch of related ads first. For example, we did a search for “seminars” on a site with Google Custom Search. Look at the results.

The first thing that pops up are links for seminars. The problem is that they’re all for seminars on competitor sites. That’s the last thing you want your users to see.

Thanks to ads, your users are essentially searching your site and the rest of the internet as well. In this case, the competitor ads even pushed the rest of the results down far enough that your users would have to scroll down to see them. That’s if they haven’t left your site by now to spend their money with your competitors.

We must note that you can make money off the appearance of these ads. However, will it ever be enough to cover the cost of a potential lost customer. Probably not.

You’re at Google’s Mercy

In addition to the issues with ads, you also have little control over how the rest of your search results. Google’s search solutions use the Google algorithm to provide the results that you and your users see. That may not seem like an issue at first, but it might mean that you aren’t getting the best search results possible.

While Google uses its own algorithm, other site search engines allow for customization. This allows you to configure what is crawled and how its crawled. This can provide a better searching experience for your users instead of settling on whatever Google wants to give you.

No Tech Support

With Google Site Search, you could contact Google’s tech support for help in case you had any issues or questions. Free Google Custom Search doesn’t offer tech support, so if you run into any problems, you’re going to be on your own to figure them out.

Time to Find a Google Site Search Replacement

Whether you’re on the fence about Google Custom Search or are considering another option, the truth is that time is ticking. Google Site Search will completely shut down April 1, 2018 and it’s important to do your research on your options. You’ve spent plenty of hard work on your site, so you need to find a site search engine that will work the way you want, look the way you want, and keep your users on your site.

At Thunderstone, we can help you replace Google Site Search with a search solution designed for your specific needs. Contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 to learn more about how we can help your site today.

Thunderstone Releases Version 18

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:00:00 -0500

New features include

Meta search profile biasing: In a meta (federated) search each profile can be given a weight for additional control over the output to favor certain backend profiles.
Canonical URL support: The crawler will now respect link rel="canonical" headers to index the canonical form of the URL.

Improvements

HTTPS/SSL Cipher support: More flexibility in specifying supported ciphers to let you balance security and older browser support.
Reject Rules always honored: Reject rules will now always be honored, so pages will be removed from the index on a refresh if they rules now exclude them, and robots.txt rules that block the base URL will still be kept.
Faceted search counts: Faceted search counts improved when estimated due to large number of results.
Other fixes: Miscellaneous other bug fixes and enhancements to the crawl and search interfaces.

Availability

Search Appliance Version 18 is available to all Search Appliance and Parametric Search Appliance customers who have a current maintenance plan by following the menu System / System Setup / Update Software.

Webinator Version 18 is available to all Webinator customers who have a current maintenance plan by contacting Thunderstone.

For 35 years Thunderstone Software has been dedicated to providing the best search solutions possible to government, corporate, and non-profit customers, with exceptional service and devotion to finding the right solution for the customer.

For further information call +1 216-820-2200, visit www.thunderstone.com.

A Solution to Google Site Search Being Discontinued

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Google recently announced that it is no longer going to be selling Google Site Search. This development leaves many users looking for an alternative. Fortunately, Thunderstone Search can help maintain search functionality.

Replacing Google Site Search with Thunderstone

Thunderstone has had a singular focus on helping organizations use search technology to improve their productivity and solve their unique business problems for over 36 years. To help you transition quickly we are offering a risk-free, cost-free transition to our hosted solution that you can then test and maintain for a modest monthly or annual fee.

When you choose Thunderstone, you get more than just a search solution. We offer ongoing support to provide your organization the value you need. Our proven support and product capabilities have already earned us the appreciation of our current clients:

"Our decision to buy and deploy three Thunderstone Search Appliances saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars in development costs." — Kevin J. Payne, Director of System Applications, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

"[A] huge Thunderstone fan... we had a 'search' for a while for a replacement for the unbelievably [high] priced Google Search Appliance, and found you guys, and haven't looked back since." — David Pagini, Voya Investment Management

At Thunderstone our focus is on providing a search solution tailored to your needs. If you have felt limited by the capabilities and flexibility of GSS (Google Site Search), worried about your information being hosted in the cloud then reach out and discover an alternative.

Upgrade to a Thunderstone Hosted Search

If you're looking for a new search solution or need to find a replacement for your Google Site Search, contact us online or give us a call at 216-820-2200 for more information about upgrading to Thunderstone.