SharePoint 2013 For Dummies
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If you have ever used Google, Bing, or Ask.com, then you’re familiar with search engines. These search engines for the Internet are amazingly powerful and eerily comprehensive. SharePoint does a bang-up job of managing content, and the next logical step in managing content is finding content when you need it. As an organization grows, the need for search grows too.

Microsoft acquired a top-notch search company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was called FAST, and Microsoft moved quickly to integrate FAST search with SharePoint. The problem was that FAST was a separate product and was difficult to configure with SharePoint 2010.

In SharePoint 2013, the FAST technology is fully integrated and baked right into SharePoint 2013. So no separate search product must be configured to work with SharePoint. The result is a very powerful and seamless search experience right out of the box.

Search is one of those topics that spans from simple to mind-numbingly complex. At a base level, you have search capabilities for every SharePoint site right out of the box. The tech geeks can go deeper and optimize search for your organization.

For example, your search query can be aware of your role in the organization and display results specifically for you. So, for example, if you’re in sales and searching for a product, your search results will be sales materials. If you’re an engineer and searching for a product, your results will include specifications. SharePoint search can make this happen, but configuring it is best left to the IT department.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Ken Withee is a longtime Microsoft SharePoint consultant. He currently writes for Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN sites and is president of Portal Integrators LLC, a software development and services company. Ken wrote Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies and is coauthor of Office 365 For Dummies.

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