Search Integration with WebSphere Portal: The Options and Challenges

Modern web applications and servers like Portal require adequate support for integration of search services due to user focused information delivery and user interaction, as well as new technologies used to render such information, which is exemplified by two fundamental problems that have long plagued web crawlers: dynamic content and Javascript generated content. Today, the solution is simple: ignore such web pages. To enable “search” in Portals, a different “crawling” paradigm is required to search engines to gather and consume information. WebSphere Portal provides a framework that propagates content and information through “Seedlists”—comparable to HTML based sitemaps but richer in terms of features. This mandates that information and content delivering applications must be “search engine aware”, requiring them to enable services and seedlists for fast, efficient and complete delivery of content and information. This is the main integration point for search engines into the portal for Portal site search services for a rich and user focused search experience. This article discusses how such technologies can allow for more efficient crawling of public Portal sites by prominent Internet search engines as well as myths surrounding search engine optimization. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0336-3.ch007