Chad Johnson

I’ll get this out of the way quickly — there is no such thing as a typical GSA implementation. With that said, I have been involved in scoping and delivering around 250 GSA implementations, and some averages and trends have emerged.  Most projects involve the same five core phases: Design and Requirements, Hardware and Security, Content […]

Google includes a comprehensive, HTML-based Admin Console for making changes to the Google Search Appliance configuration.  Adding KeyMatches, changing crawl URL patterns, exporting reports, etc.  This works very well during development and for making minor changes thereafter.  But in a large, complex deployment, it is often desirable to script changes or write code to do them automatically. […]

In previous posts I have discussed the algorithms and applications of machine learning. One of the most sophisticated forms of machine learning is building a neural network that mimics the flesh-and-blood brain – with software- or hardware-based versions of neurons and synapses. But silicon operates differently than the stuff in our brains. In the past, researchers have suspected an entirely […]

Well, I am probably going to kick myself for trying to do this, but I have finally decided to write an overview of Google Search Appliance security.  I realize this is a bit like trying to write an article on how the Internet works – the topic is broad, it has been covered by many people […]

In last week’s article, What is Machine Learning?, I gave an overview of Machine Learning and provided a link to a very informative visual guide that describes how the technology works.  I also hinted at some useful applications within Enterprise Search.  I would like to cover a few of those that I have seen in recent months. […]

What is Machine Learning?  Well, I have a general idea of how to explain Machine Learning – it is the process of training a computer using historical data and decisions, such that the computer can then make its own decisions in the future using all new data that it has never seen before.  For example, machine […]

Last week, Google announced some astounding statistics about the success rate of their spam filtering technology in Google Mail.  Google says that less than 0.1% of email in the average user’s Gmail inbox is spam, and the rate for legitimate email ending up in the spam folder is even lower at less than %0.05. Despite these superb […]

Setting up a web crawler in the Google Search Appliance is a piece of cake — you enter a starting URL and some boundaries and let it rip.  The GSA will spider its way around until it finds every reachable page in the site.  For a well-structure site, this usually produces very good results, but not all sites […]

I am very pleased to announce that Chris Cook and Praveen Gullapalli have joined the elite team of Google Search Appliance (GSA) Qualified Deployment Specialists. They join existing GSA specialists Anu Pidaparti, Allen Han, Alok Gupta, Cody Coggins, Narbeh Yousefian, Shruti Sundaresh, Yogesh Dhavale, and myself. Chris and Praveen both have extensive project experience implementing some […]

Google announced a wide variety of new products and features during the Google I/O 2015 Keynote yesterday.  At first glance, most of them are consumer focused.  Google Photos, Brillo for smart home automation, virtual reality headsets, etc.  However, several of the announcements or themes have an impact on the enterprise world. Globalization and Mobile First Google emphasized many […]

When I wake up in the morning I have a couple of choices for what to do first.  I could brush my teeth.  I could take a shower.  Or I could fix that broken shelf in the garage. Come again?  Two of those sound very typical and easy.  But the last one is less obvious, much harder, […]

Google has released version 7.4 of the Google Search Appliance Software.  The upgrade includes the following new features: Seamless Integration with Microsoft: we’re releasing our SharePoint and Active Directory 4.0 connectors out of beta. These connectors provide improved scalability, easier configuration and tighter integration with SharePoint. Additionally, the GSA now supports ADFS, which improves our ability […]