Q 4 authors: Lucene v.s. other search engines

[Gian Franco]

Dear authors,

I've seen Lucene mentioned in Ant in Action,
but time restrictions didn't allow me to fit
it in a nifty application which I would like
to have what Lucene offers, and I definitely
would like to know more about it.

What's the difference between Lucene and
other search engines? Which criteria for
comparison can be used?

Thanks,

Gian
[ January 06, 2005: Message edited by: Gian Franco Casula ]

[Erik Hatcher]

Originally posted by Gian Franco Casula:
I've seen Lucene mentioned in Ant in Action,
but time restrictions didn't allow me to fit
it in a nifty application which I would like
to have what Lucene offers, and I definitely
would like to know more about it.

What's the difference between Lucene and
other search engines? Which criteria for
comparison can be used?
[ January 06, 2005: Message edited by: Gian Franco Casula ]

I assume you mean Steve Loughran and my's Java Development with Ant, where we used Lucene as part of the demonstration application.

As for differences with other search engines - there really is no competition in the Java space other than Egothor. Egothor is quite interesting and definitely worth investigation. Lucene has the bulk of the open-source search engine expertise mind-share, though, and thus is more well-known and used in countless applications.

One primary difference between many search engines and Lucene is that Lucene allows incremental indexing. In many others, re-indexing the entire collection is required when adding, updating, or deleting documents.

To be honest, I know Lucene, and have spent time with Microsoft Index Server, but have not spent a great deal of time personally with the others. Perhaps others can comment on their experiences with other competition? I'd be curious what other engines folks are using.

[Gian Franco]

Sorry, "Java development with Ant"