[Sigia-l] Thunderstone Search Appliance [was: RE: Google Appliance]

[Gabriel]

Lyle,


I agree completely -- the client list is not always a trustworthy source to
make a decision on a product. That said, you were looking for a
recommendation -- I provided one and said that from my experience it was an
enterprise product --- you said it didn't look like it --- so I said look at
their client list.

Yet, you are right; I am a happy customer (which should say something) -- no
kool-aid needed -- I have a solid search infrastructure (which I should
mention is completely non-standard and required an extremely extensible
platform)...which makes me more than happy to push their product.

I am not sure how you evaluate products for your projects but I have learned
that sometimes the best stuff is the worst looking (think about the
shoemaker's shoes) --- eval. based on the merits of the product and your
needs, not the look or your suspicions of their client list.

Anyway, RTFW :)

http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/pages/Milestones.html
(some kool-aid for ya :)

Or not...its almost sounding like what you need is a turn-key Google box
anyway (their interface is a bit prettier, in that Google sort-of way), so
maybe it would be a waste of time to actually read about Thunderstone.

(PS: you are right in your assumption about the admin UIs--ugly and sometime
illogical---but you will need to it customize for your project anyway, it
was made to be generic)


Good luck with your project!

>||;)

Gabriel Kent



---
Lyle Kantrovich [lyle.kantrovich at gmail.com] wrote:


>> Many vendors have impressive sounding/looking client lists.  I've
>> learned to not be impressed.  All too often you learn that the product
>> is used in some minor way or on a minor site vs. on the very visible
>> site you think of at first.  (E.g. if Amazon.com was using
>> Thunderstone on their intranet, that's much different than on their
>> U.S. e-commerce site.)  I've also had occasion to call "clients" of
>> vendors to find out that they are a "past client" or unhappy with the
>> product.


>> To expand on my point about their site not looking very
>> "trustworthy"...I've also learned that companies selling web
>> technology that have poor UIs for their own site tend to have poor
>> product UIs.  This isn't a hard and fast "rule"...just a tendency I've
>> noticed.  There are some great, small companies out there.

>> Anyway, I was hoping you could offer some insight into what
>> differentiates Thunderstone.  All I hear is you're a happy, paying,
>> (kool-aid drinking) customer.  :-)