Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

No preset document limits. Scale your search infrastructure to meet your evolving needs—however big or small—using the same search platform across a breadth of server hardware and SQL Server database configurations.

Continuous propagation indexing. Improve the freshness of search results with an index that updates itself incrementally as it crawls information. Newly crawled content is propagated to the query servers immediately, so people can search it without having to wait for all content to be crawled.

Out-of-the-box indexing connectors. Index content on file servers, Web sites, Windows SharePoint Services, Office SharePoint Server, Exchange Server public folders, and Lotus Notes repositories. Find additional indexing connectors in the Search Connector Gallery.

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• Indexing connector API. Extend searches by indexing information in third-party data repositories, applications, and services.

• Proxy server configuration. Configure proxy server settings to be used when crawling information on external sites.

Federated search connectors. Federate searches to indexes in other data repositories, applications, and services, using the OpenSearch standard. Quickly import or export your federated locations using packaged Federated Location Definition (.FLD) files. Find federated search connectors in the Search Connector Gallery.

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• Trigger words. Configure key phrases to trigger a targeted search of information within a federated index.

• Federated results customization. Optionally customize the appearance of your federated search results using XSL style sheets.

• Internet search integration. Use the same search query experience to retrieve Internet search results from providers supporting the OpenSearch standard through federated search connectors.

Search iFilters. Index a wide variety of documents and file types using an interface common across Windows Desktop Search, Windows Vista, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and SQL Server.

Search Connector Gallery. Reference the Microsoft online gallery of third-party federated search connectors, indexing connectors, and iFilters.

Relevance tuning. Retrieve the most relevant results from a single search query across a diverse set of third-party line-of-business systems and content repositories. Use a ranking engine developed in collaboration with Microsoft Research and Windows Live Search.

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• Metadata property mappings. Identify custom metadata properties you want indexed, and incorporate them into search results, advanced search options, and search scopes.

• Search scopes. Define custom sets of search results based on flexible rules. For example, define a scope that matches information having certain properties (like "people") or from certain content sources (like a specific Web site).

• Authoritative sources. Identify and rank information sources that are most likely to provide relevant results. Demote non-authoritative sources.

• Definitions. Define editorial text that should appear whenever a keyword or phrase is used in a search query.

• Best bets. Recommend sites that should be returned as top results when a search query matches a key word or phrase.

• Key words. Define words and phrases that trigger the return of definitions and best bets. Define and audit key word owners, review dates, and expirations for terms that are time sensitive.

• Synonyms. List related terms that should return identical predefined results as your key words.

Common desktop search infrastructure. Use a search infrastructure that scales effectively from the desktop, allowing components such as iFilters and indexing connectors that are used for desktop search to be used on the server, as well. Learn more about Windows Desktop Search.

Streamlined installation. Quickly get an enterprise search infrastructure running in your environment using the simplified installation experience.

Unified administration dashboard. Review common administrative tasks, monitor system and crawl status, and configure your search settings in a single, configurable view.

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• Crawl scheduling. Configure data repositories, applications, and services you want indexed, and specify crawl schedules for when full or incremental crawls should be performed.

• Crawler impact rules. Limit the performance impact of the search indexer on specific content sources by setting caps on the frequency of, or interval between, requests.

• Server name mappings. Transpose intranet and extranet site addresses.

• Index monitoring. Monitor crawl timings, durations, errors, and average performance over one-week and one-month periods for each content source.

• Crawl logs. Review detailed status reports on content crawled by the search index—filterable by location, date and time, content source, and status.

• System event logging. Track system events, and roll them up into Microsoft Operations Manager reports.

Query and results reporting. Review your most common searches, queries with no results, top destination pages, query volume, click-through rates, and most-clicked best bets. Identify not only the most popular searches, but also the least successful, and improve them by adding new best bets and content sources.

Enterprise-ready backup and restore. Schedule or perform impromptu backups and restores of your configuration data and search index, on premise or remotely.

Security-trimmed results. Help ensure that people find only the information they should have access to, by trimming search results automatically, based on the identity of the user at query time. Access control lists (ACLs) for content on file shares, SharePoint sites, and Lotus Notes databases are captured automatically at index time.

Secure federated relationships. For your federated search relationships, set global or user-level security settings that support basic, NTLM, Kerberos, forms-based, and cookie-based authentication mechanisms.

Crawl rules. Specify unique crawl inclusion and exclusion behaviors and authentication credentials for specific content sources.

Single-item index removal. Quickly remove sensitive content from the search index without having to re-index a content source. Crawl exclusion rules are created automatically to ensure this content isn't re-indexed.

Breadth of enterprise search solutions. Minimize your investment risk by betting on a common search infrastructure offering solutions that will grow with you, ranging from a quick, easy, and no-cost search server to a sophisticated business productivity infrastructure. Compare Microsoft enterprise search offerings.

Technical resources. Make use of the Microsoft library of enterprise search technical resources and articles on TechNet and MSDN.

Community discussion groups. Connect with your peers who are implementing Microsoft enterprise search solutions. Participate in community discussion groups.

Partner ecosystem. Take advantage of the broad Microsoft partner ecosystem with expertise in extending and implementing enterprise search solutions.

Product support. Use paid support options to receive technical support. Learn more about the Microsoft support policy for Search Server 2008 Express.