MC+A

Sometimes I get so use to the Google.com search interface that I’m surprised when I don’t see it.  It looks like I got randomly shown this variation of the classic Google.com site.  On the left there is the Google properties and then some faceted search

What is interesting is if you scroll down a little you’ll see some biasing options.   Here there is an option for “more shopping sites” and “less shopping sites’”

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Since the Google Search Appliance introduced support for both Microsoft SharePoint and Kerberos many of our customers have begun to implement Kerberos more often technology. 

Kerberos with SharePoint can provide a Single Sign On technology that is silent.  However, the reason that most companies have not implemented Kerberos because it’s difficult to debug.  I have found this tool develop by Brian Murphy to save weeks of debugging time.  It’s easy to set up and provides tests for Kerberos authentication as well as delegation.

http://blogs.iis.net/brian-murphy-booth/archive/2007/03/09/delegconfig-delegation-configuration-reporting-tool.aspx

Yesterday on their Google Apps Blog, Google announced a web clipboard for Google Docs. This is the first great step in getting similar thick client functionality. My “holy grail” request is to actually get a web clip board so that I can simply paste say an image I’m working on into Google Docs or Google Wave and have everyone be able to see it. Below or some screen shots of it in action.

Google has released a new software update for version 6.2.  The most notable fix in this release is for the GSA mirroring feature.  Additionally, there are about 14 documented updates. 

Our support customers will be contacted by MC+A support to schedule a time to perform the upgrade.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

As someone who watches the Superbowl for the ads, seeing the Google “Parisian Love” was a real treat. With a dash of sugar Google really highlighted the broad features of the Google search engine. The Google Search Appliance provides many of the same functions, securely for the enterprise. It was get to point the the TV and tell friends and family “That is what we do for clients.” Which is pretty much true….well add a dash of Kerburos or a custom SAML interface

Google Apps Administrative Tip 1

Remember that when you delete an account, you also delete all of the documents that that user was an owner of.  If you are forced to terminate someone, simply change their password until you have time to reassign ownership of their documents.

https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=112069

Recently, while working on a Google Search Appliance implementation involving a custom SAML interface users were being returned documents in some cases which they did not have access to. In reviewing the logs, we found that SharePoint was responding with an HTTP status of 200.

The GSA resolves late binding by performing a head request. Our case involved a user being granted access to a document by the GSA that they shouldn’t have. For reasons unknown, when one user accessed a page, they got a 401 (unauthorized) and when another use accessed the page, they got an error. Both users were not able to access the document.

The head request was something similar to:

This appears to be a standard 200 response, but it contains something interesting. There is an additional header called SharePointError. In digging around MSDN, I found this article . The SAML bridge had to be modified to check for this head in addition to the response. The existence of this header does not indicate a failure, only that it needs to be future examined to see if the user has access.

gsa-faceted-search helps you build a faceted search experience.  The filters are static but provide a very rich ability to filter without a hole lot of XSLT modifications.  There is a simple 3 step process documented here on adding it to your search interface.

From all of us at MC+A.  Have a happy and safe holiday season.  Best wishes for the new year.

- The MC+A Team

Earlier this week, Google release version 2.4.  This is the first public accessible version of the connectors.  Connections as part of this release are:

• SharePoint
• Documentum
• LiveLink
• FileNet
• File Systems – new (aka beta)
• Databases – new (aka beta)

Upon first view of them, it looks like they incorporate many of the suggestions we have posted on this blog over the past few months.  (i.e. use javascript to produce the results [Thanks Jon Doctor!]).  We’ll be posting a how to get the best search out of SharePoint with a Google Search Appliance shortly.

Customers interested in assistance with deployment of the connectors please contact us.