Microsoft offers Search Server Express free

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Microsoft has launched its free Search Server Express 2008, a standalone version of SharePoint 2007's enterprise search component, targeting the entry-level search market.

Search Server Express 2008 utilises the OpenSearch standard to collect results from sources including Live, Yahoo, Google or Wikipedia, as well as internal company resources, including blogs and knowledge centres.

The software giant also plans to bundle free connectors that index content from EMC's Documentum and IBM's FileNet in early 2008.

Addressing the issue of relevancy, Microsoft said Search Server will automatically prioritise internal company resources like knowledge centres, though system managers will have the option to fine tune the search results.

Key to Microsoft's hopes for Search Server Express is the simplicity of the interface, which employs a search box against a plain, white background and is clearly modelled on internet search.

"People love simplicity, and this is one of those problems even the high-end search products have," said Rob Gray, SharePoint Product Manager at Microsoft UK.

"They have all these features but queries still have to pretty specific, which most people really aren't used to because they've been trained by internet search to expect simplicity - people don't ever look at the second page of results anymore, they probably don't look beyond the first two or three," he added.

Microsoft is keen to stress that its product is aimed at the entry-level market, where it will be competing with Google's Enterprise Search Appliance and IBM's OmniFind, as opposed to the high-end market where Autonomy and FIND dominate.

The free version can only be used on a single server. However, Gray did note that the product would be "driven by customer requirement over the next two or three years", leaving the door open for a further push into the high-end market.

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