Solr next new thing for Europian Parliaments

According to some representatives of European Parliaments (UK, Europe, Belgium) , Solr is the next new thing in the field of search solutions for their websites and intranet search.

Today I was at a workshop focussed on the topic of search. The workshop was organized by the dutch Parliament and there were representatives of 8 parliaments of other European countries (Belgium, UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Israel).

What stroke me there was the real interest in Solr as a solution for there search needs. I know that Solr is really upcoming but still has a "techy" ring about it... so I thought.

It seems that Solr is on its way to becoming a standard in government land. Faster than I had thought it would be.

Driven by the need for Open Source software and lower license costs, many organisations are willing to try out Solr. They take the absence of support from the vendor (there is no) for granted and are investing in own knowledge or that of implementation partners.

One reason for this "gamble" was very sensible in my opinion:

The field of search is really evolving. Not only from a technical point of view but also from a vendor and marketing angle.
We choose Solr because it is cheap, it is still being developed very fast, and our need for functionality is simple now. At the time we want more functionality, the product probably will have it. It therefore grows with our needs...
When after 3 years it seems that we have made the wrong decision we still haven't thrown away much money. We can than always switch.

I must agree with the choice. Why pay EUR 100.000,00 for a product that promises everything while you are using part of it.
Of course Solr is free but the implementation will cost you money. But even if you spend 50.000,00 on customising Solr it it still half as cheap.

Seems like the way to go for me...