The theme of Big Data continued at the next conference I attended, the first Enterprise Search Europe held in London. There was a good mix of presentations ranging from the academic to the practical, my favourite probably being Martin Belam and colleague’s talk about using Solr to dynamically generate content for the new Guardian Books site. I was lucky enough to be able to talk about the real business benefits of open source search along with one of our customers, Stephen Wicks, CTO of Gorkana Group, which drew some interesting questions. We also ran a combined Meetup on the Monday evening, combining Enterprise Search Cambridge with Enterprise Search London.
There did seem to be a rather negative spin on search from many presenters – saying that search technology is misunderstood, more costly than expected, rarely works and hasn’t seen much recent innovation. Some of this is true – but I see this as an opportunity rather than a problem. There is more focus on the world of search now than before due to some high-profile acquisitions; people are questioning the value and capability of search technology. Those of us working at the cutting edge, delivering real working solutions, should perhaps take this opportunity to say that yes, it can be done, at a sensible cost, and it can deliver real business benefit. Perhaps as we move further into the world of Big Data we’ll realise the true value of effective search.
