Smarter Search for South Park
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See our slideshow on Solr, and one on a related project, Hadoop.
The open source Solr search engine is emerging as the standard for new
and revamped websites launched by MTV Networks and is already powering
the search on key properties such as TheDailyShow.com,
ColbertNation.com, and SouthParkStudios.com.
"We have about 15 sites on Solr and more coming later this year," says
Mark Cohen, vice president of the data platform group at MTV.
The flagship MTV.com website still bases its search function on the
Google Search Appliance and is unlikely to be converted anytime soon,
he said. That main website is so sprawling and more complex that the
Google approach to crawling and indexing web content is the most
practical approach. But on the more focused websites MTV Networks is
building around specific shows or to appeal to appeal to specific
audiences, Solr is becoming the default choice because of the way it
can take advantage of categories or "facets" within search results,
Cohen said.
Solr is a branch of the Apache Lucene project, which has also spawned
other powerful spin-offs such as the Hadoop distributed computing
system. Lucene itself is a Java library used as a core component for
multiple search systems. Solr was originally developed by Yonik Seeley
while at CNET Networks, where it is used on the CNET Reviews site to
help visitors drill down through search results by category. Seeley has
since joined Lucid Imagination, a firm formed to provide commercial
distributions, training, and support for Lucene and Solr.
MTV is talking with Lucid (which provided us with an introduction) but
has yet to sign up for its services, says Warren Habib, Senior Vice
President of Digital Platform Development at MTV Networks. MTV likes to
take advantage of open source products wherever practical, Habib says.
"We're fundamentally a media company, not a technology company," he
says, and open source software not only helps keep costs down but tends
to be backed by a large pool of skilled developers. But he says MTV is
also "open" to taking advantage of commercial support options to make
its use of these technologies more effective.
