There is very little information to be had about what changes Microsoft's much-anticipatedSharepoint 2010 will bring.
This uncertainty is only increased by Microsoft’s acquisition of FAST last year and the release of the standard set of SharePoint Search features in Search Server Express. There is, however, great anticipation about Office SharePoint Server 2010 and we are beginning to see parts of what looks like a great new release from Microsoft.
So, there are some very certain questions around the future of search in SharePoint:
1) Will the API’s be open to build custom search applications against SharePoint ?
2) Will there be Wildcard in the coming release?
3) Will there be improvements in the existing UI?
4) Will there be bug fixes to handle problems such as ‘query too long’?
5) Will SharePoint handle custom operators in the search field?
6) Will we have categorization of faceted search?
7) Will it be scalable?
Although we will have to wait to get the answers to these questions, we can already find an answer to most of these problems with Ontolica for MOSS 2007. And for customers with Ontolica, there are many extended features and future improvements to expect regardless of what Microsoft has in store.
Surfray is working with Microsoft to make sure its customers are protected into the future with Ontolica and have engaged in several partner initiatives to develop as closely with Microsoft as possible. We will also be a part of the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas in October this year where more detail will be revealed.
In the meantime, we have created a Customer Advisory Board for our 2010 development effort and would like to invite customers to join in providing feedback and requirements to the next release.
Please sign up for the board at this link. If you just have some great product improvement ideas, please feel free to send them to us at any time.