9.1. Introduction to Enterprise Search
The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Enterprise Search functionality allows you to search and crawl very diverse content sources, both internally and externally. This shared service also returns those results within a specific security context. Enhanced and expanded, the results can be filtered and made relevant to the people who need the information and are supposed to have it. This compelling set of features can be customized quite heavily through the extensive object model exposed by MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search.
A growing number of organizations are using this functionality to enable searches over content that was previously unreachable with earlier search technologies. That content exists in many different systems and folders, and by combining MOSS Enterprise Search with the Business Data Catalog, virtually all content within a given enterprise can now be queried regardless of its source.
Understanding how you want to search is just as important as what you want to search. What metadata should be crawled, the keywords to be used, and the scope of the search itself are all key factors in developing a successful Enterprise Search strategy.
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