Happy New Year! January is named after Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors and of beginnings and endings. Janus is portrayed as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. In honor of this ancient Roman god, we are going to take the opportunity in this issue to look back on the big events in enterprise search in 2005, and go out on a limb and make some predictions about what we may see in 2006.

Of course, we'll also provide some insights into technical aspects of enterprise search: this month, Dr. Search writes about using Java Ant as a build tool for Verity K2 collections; and we begin a new column we call "Site Search Reality Check" where we take a look at a site and share our suggestions for how they might make their search more useful. We look forward to having you with us as we move into what promises to be an interesting year for those of us who use enterprise search every day!

Biggest Enterprise Search Stories of 2005: Autonomy acquires, Google stalls, FAST accelerates, Search analytics finally catches on and faceted search and smarter results takeoff. 2006 was one heck of a year for enterprise search; who would have imagined a year ago that Verity would cease to exist as a company? FAST continues to enhance its reputation as the "bring it on" company, helping customers with millions and millions of documents find the right content - well, fast. And there is Google attempting to grow as an enterprise solution. [More].

The Transatlantic Titans Square Off in 2006: Autonomy, based in the UK, has completed its acquisition of search powerhouse Verity. Oslo Norway is the home base for FAST, which continues to expand its presence in the North American market. With the Europeans now controlling much of the Enterprise Search market space, how will the US "Big 4" respond? And what does this mean for Asia? Read our take on how the enterprise search battle across the North Atlantic will shape up in 2006, and what steps you need to do to stay ahead of the curve at your company. [More].

Site Search Reality Check: Mark Bennett writes the first installment of this new column. We have all experienced the frustration of going to a site and not being able to find the content we know must be there. Add to that the frustration of entering a product number in the site search box and finding "no hits" when we know the company makes the very product we are looking for. This month Mark tells us how recommending a utility product to a customer turned into a nightmare of a search problem. And all he wanted to do was suggest a great product to suggest to a customer! It's true: No good deed goes unpunished! [More].

What's New - January 2006: Three conferences highlight the news this month. FASTForward in February,Verity Connections 2006 in March, and Enterprise Search in May. We're also proud to announce our new partnership with FAST Search. [More].

Dr. Search: Java Ant from the Apache Project is a tool for managing development projects in Java, not unlike make is in the Unix environment. Like so many open source tools, Java Ant provides the hooks to be useful for more than just its original function, and this month, Dr. Search shows you how you can use Java Ant to create K2 collections. [More].

Remember to contact Dr. Search with your questions at support@ideaeng.com.

Search Analytics Corner is on vacation this month but will return next month!

Information on Subscribing and Unsubscribing:

You are receiving this newsletter because you have subscribed on our web site or because we have your name and email address on file from a prior contact and felt you would find the content useful. If you do not wish to receive this monthly newsletter, please let me know via email (unsubscribe@ideaeng.com) or call my office
at (408) 446-3460.

If you think other people in your organization would find this newsletter useful, subscriptions are free and can be requested at http://ideaeng.com/subscribe.html.