IBM enhances enterprise search

IBM has launched a new version of its flagship enterprise search and discovery product, OmniFind, featuring new capabilities to trawl through online data, and an improved user interface.

OmniFind Enterprise Edition 8.5 is able to search Lotus Connections, the firm's social networking service, and online collaboration service Quickr, as well as the latest version of Lotus Notes and Domino 8, according to the firm.

"We talk about OmniFind more broadly than search," said Aaron Brown, IBM's programme director for search and content discovery. "It's for organisations wanting to dig deep into their unstructured content and drive better decision making by leveraging unstructured content."

Social networking and collaboration tools like Quickr and Connections would be increasingly important sources of enterprise information, argued Mike Davis of analyst firm Ovum. "Web 2.0 technologies will increasingly be repositories of really valuable information," he added. "Without [recognising] this it couldn't be called enterprise search.

He added that OmniFind may have an advantage over competing search products in providing quicker access to information stored in these Lotus-built products.

IBM also announced a new Top Results Analysis feature which displays search results graphically, allowing users to drill down into the data to find what they want more accurately, said Brown.

"Two to three years ago it was all about users wanting [the simplicity] of Yahoo or Google search in the enterprise, but now it's more about optimising the business and driving better use of information and this goes deeper than search, " he added.

Ovum's Davis said the graphical results display would be valuable for users attempting discovery, rather than those who know what they are searching for, but added that the technology still needs refining.