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Microsoft Gives Away Search Server 2008

Microsoft is giving away Search Server 2008 Express to anyone who wants it, just by downloading it directly from Microsoft's Web site here. The Express version is the sibling to the enterprise-strength version of Microsoft Search Server 2008, which the company unveiled at an enterprise search conference in San Jose, Calif.

Search Server 2008 Express packages up the enterprise search capabilities found in SharePoint Server 2007, according to a press release issued by the company. With it come free connectors for searching among data and documents in EMC's Documentum and IBM's Filenet document management systems. Microsoft says that it's working with other partners to provide more connectors and federated search features that support the OpenSearch standard.

Jonathan Kauffman, general manager of Microsoft's Enterprise Search group, points to several other key features of the Express version in his blog. He cites "relevancy tuning, security-trimmed search results and great out-of-the-box administration and reporting." What's also noteworthy, says Kauffman, is that Express also imposes no limits to the number of documents that can be indexed and searched.

Microsoft Search Server 2008 itself is also available, but only to Microsoft's volume licensing program customers.That version, according to the press release, adds enterprise deployment and scalability options.

To read more about Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express, click here. To read about partners developing federated search connectors that will work with Search Server, go here.

About the Author

Michael Domingo is executive editor, new media, and editor of MCPmag.com. You can contact Michael at [email protected].