Major Search Services in Government

[Eliot Christian <echristi@usgs.gov>]

There is ongoing work under the E-Government Act to
prepare recommendations on search interoperability.
Our interest in search technologies includes database
query as well as information retrieval, and includes
facilities for internal government use as well as
those supporting public access (see draft "Statement
of Requirements for Search Interoperability" at
http://www.search.gov/interop/requirements.html )

As part of that work, I am seeking a rough sense of
how many different search technologies are now in
common use. If you are aware of such a list of major
search products/services in use across government
(especially but not exclusively, the U.S. Federal
Government), please let me know. I have in mind to
compile a list as products/services are suggested,
similar to the attached skeleton HTML page.

Eliot

Title: Statement of Requirements for Search Interoperability

Categorization of Government Information (CGI) Working Group
U.S. Federal Interagency Committee on Government Information

Informal Survey of Search Services in Use by Government

This document, version 1, is located on the Internet at http://www.search.gov/interop/services.html 
Comments on this document may be sent to the editor, Eliot Christian, U.S. Geological Survey (e-mail: echristian@usgs.gov )

Products or Services	Examples in Government	Notes
Alta Vista
Autonomy
Blue Angel Technologies
BookWhere? (Sea Change Corporation)		BookWhere is client search software focused on searching of library catalogs, including  search by geospatial constraints.
Convera
ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute)	Geodata.Gov (Geospatial One-Stop portal)	This search technology features search by geospatial constraints.
Excite
Fast	FirstGov.Gov (GSA-operated portal)
Google
HtDig		HtDig is open-source, free software.
Index Data
Infoseek/Ultraseek, Inktomi, Inquery,
Isite		Isite features search by geospatial constraints. Isite is open-source, free software.
Microsoft
OCLC (Online Computer Library Consortium)		OCLC software focuses on library catalog searching.
Oracle		Oracle software supports database queries, typically through SQL (Structured Query Language).
SIRSI		SIRSI software focuses on library catalog searching.
Texis
Verity
Vivisimo
WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers)	GPO Access	At GPO, this technology is expected to be refreshed soon.
Yahoo