07 Jul 06 Website Search – Background

Our lease on the Google search appliance (installed in 2004 and credited with vast improvements in the searchability of the ALA website) will be up for renewal in December of 2006. While we would like to extend the “umbrella” of Google searching to all ALA online content (Online Communities, discussion list archives, etc.) the cost would be prohibitive. Google bases its pricing, in part, on the number of files indexed, and our list archives alone account for some 600,000 files (the website stands at approximately 141,000 files). While it is rumored that Google is restructuring its pricing models to maintain their competitiveness, it remains to be seen what this new pricing is and whether or not it would suit our needs.

We will evaluate the purported new Google pricing on just the website, and the website plus other content. If Google remains our choice for website content indexing, we will look for another solution for indexing list archives, and then will pursue a federated search solution for all ALA content.