PicoSearch closing its service July 1, 2014 - Discounted migration to Zoom

[David]

We have heard that PicoSearch (from SAS) is closing its service as of July 1, 2014 and their site search function will be discontinued.

For any customers looking for a alternative replacement site search solution we are offering a 30% discount off Zoom Enterprise.

Email us for a coupon code.

[David]

Not only is PicoSearch shutting down, but it seems Atomz has also closed it doors.

In both instances it was, yet another, example of a big company buying a small one, then shutting it down.

I sent them an E-mail with the hope of opening up a discussion about buying them out and keeping the service going. Sadly they didn't reply.

[David]

PicoSearch have just put up an announcement on their web site. I'll copy it here in case their web site suddenly disappears like the Atomz site.

"PicoSearch web service will end July 1, 2014

After 17 years of providing site search, we are informing you that PicoSearch is ending. As of this time, no new account registrations nor new payments will be accepted. Pre-existing accounts will continue to operate until July 1st, 2014.

Existing PicoSearch customers should have already received email notification and contact information.

There are replacement options for site search available on the internet. We regret to cause you this inconvenience and appreciate your patronage over the years. We wish you all the best with your internet ventures."

[cribbswh]

I've been using my paid copy of Zoomsearch in order to replace Picosearch. My hosting company gives my site a maximum of 128 Mb of server memory. When the Zoomsearch dictionary file exceeds 500,000 it exceeds the server memory and I get an Error 500. My Texas Marriages Search Engine is having to be indexed by the year. Some years cause the index to exceed 500,000. Is there a way to get around this?

[David]

The amount of RAM required on your server is proportional to the amount of content indexed.

Normally around 32MB is enough. But for very large sites like yours more RAM will be required.

Typical web servers have around 16 - 32GB nowadays. So the use of 128MB is less than 1% of the machine's resources. So your hosting company is screwing you to some degree if you aren't allowed even 1% of the machine for the few seconds when a search takes place.

Possible solutions are,
- Index fewer pages
- Index just the first X words from each page
- Have a close look at the pages and see if unnecessary words are being indexed on each page.
- Switch from using the Zoom PHP option to the CGI option, which is both faster and uses less ram (assuming your host allows CGIs). I assume you are using PHP at the moment.
- Have a go at directly modifying the limit yourself. See this FAQ for details
- Move to a new more flexible hosting company (or upgrade if they allow it to a dedicated server)