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AT&T will use FAST Data Search to search over 50 million pages of
federal and state government information. The scalability of the FAST
Data Search platform will allow FirstGov to rapidly expand the number of
websites it spiders from Federal, State, and local governments. In
addition to being able to search HTML pages, citizens will be able to
search government databases, PDF documents and other file formats.
http://www.fast.no/press/press_display.asp?pr_rel=120 [fast.no]
Federal Computer Week:
[fcw.com...]
Within hours of the award, at least two of the losing bidders demanded "debriefings" on the contract award.
...
One bidder said GSA could have bought search engine services from Google...for more than $2 million less than it has agreed to pay for Fast Search's services.
...
said that choosing a foreign company to provide the search engine for "the premier U.S. government Web site is almost blasphemy."
They promised search early, and still don't have a decent one, and I look for a legal battle to ensue regarding the current decision. Politics are ALWAYS local, and this decision will get the politicians moving toward those litigation offices and toward the constituent polls in great haste.
DG
It appears this deal is not about just chosing a search engine, but about implementing search technology into the existing structures, which requires a bundle of products/services, of which Fast provides a core tecnology.
The dissapointed competitors named so far are Inktomi and Google. Ink has provided search technology up to now. Apparently it didn't work too well.
Google's failure perhaps is caused by their loss of experinece in the corporate search market.
Fast strategy to partner with leading corps while remaining in the background might have proven more effective.
AT&T was a customer of TIBCO's real-time e-business infrastructure software, which use Fast's RealTime Filter technology.
Apparently Fast's ability to integrate their technology into existing structures gives them a huge advantage in this ultra competitive field.
>Politics is always local
So I thought big biz was increasingly global?
No sense in testing the global market if you can't sell products in your own town.
I'll reserve congrats until the technology is implemented and is proven. Until then, it's a contract. with the U.S. government no less, notorious for fouling up the even the simplest of ideas.
DG
Might be true for selling potatoes and such. The market here is big organisations, who more often than not act, sell, buy and make decisions across country borders anyway.
Ink, one of the competitors in this game has sold search solutions for companies and organisations before, in the US and elsewhere. They have sold products in their town, but the products of another vendor are better. Simple as that.
Google to my knowledge has not, and it is questionable if they are equipped to get such a job right.
Also keep in mind: the contract was made with AT&T in the first place!
I'll still reserve comment until I see the finished product. The assumption that the U.S. government made the best decision regarding a technology is a huge leap of faith for me. I'm not going where those angels fear to ...
The assumption that AT&T made that decision all by their lonesome regarding this contract is naive at best.
DG
So Yahoo and Altavista were among the competitors also.
This article gives some specifications for the requirements. Main points concerning speed, scalability, variety of document types and relevance.
However, a GSA spokeswoman said the agency does not believe "buy American" requirements that apply to some government purchases apply to the search engine procurement.
<conjecture>The GSA is probably being roasted right now by several committees in regard to this. </conjecture>
At the very least, the GSA wants the publicity toned down a notch or two until they can be sure that those requirements don't apply.
DG
Proposal evaluation was conducted by a cross-agency team that included representatives from the GSA, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and independent third party experts....
citizens will be able to request search results to be displayed by category, subject and agency. The configurability and support for Web services offered by this platform will allow FirstGov affiliates to seamlessly integrate with FirstGov search services
Rather than whine because they lost the bid, and accuse the US Government of treason, I think the US search engines ought be asking themselves what they can do to offer the US Government and US Taxpayers a more competitive package
Also: FASTs technology seems to work very economically:
The Norwegian search engine that beat American competitors to provide search services for FirstGov offered "the best technical solution" at "an incredibly lower price," a senior federal official said.
I imagine there's some serious pressure building up on AT&t and FAST...
The delay - original proposed date was march - apparently was not on AT&T'S or FAST's side:
because GSA decided to buy and install new switching servers for the search engine, according to a senior GSA official
