Funnelback has built government search services for clients including: Australian Government, Bolton Council, Queensland Government, New South Wales Government and a joint project for three councils in West London.
Media and Publishing
Through its work with some of the world’s largest publishers, Elsevier, Oxford University Press, Funnelback understands the delicate balancing act of showcasing news, events and products and empowering users to navigate an ocean of information and helps them find exactly what they are looking for quickly.
Funnelback provides a search platform for Macmillan Cancer Support, Scope and Lifeline among others, connecting visitors to the information and vital support offered by the organisations ensuring that those in need find the help they seek.
Major Funnelback product releases occur about every two years. Versions of Funnelback prior to 6.0 are regarded as P@noptic releases. The last major Funnelback release, Version 15, was launched in early 2016.
Technology
The core of the system is based around the proprietary Parallel Document Retrieval Engine developed by the Australian National University and CSIRO to perform very fast data look-ups. Its relevancy ranking system uses a variant of the Okapi BM25 algorithm to rank document content and metadata. The company has also been granted patents for annotation index methods and search result sub-topic identification. It has the ability to search a range of formats in addition to HTML files. These include PDF, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, images, and XML. It also has the ability to connect to, and index databases, LDAP directories, CIFS fileshares and various social media platforms. Adapters currently exist for HPE Content Manager, and the design of the system allows users to create their own connectors should they not exist. A plugin for the open source connector platforms is provided to connect to additional repositories. A REST API also allows third-party system to push content into Funnelback. When used on-site and not hosted, Funnelback is designed for operation on Windows and Linux platforms. Support for Solaris has been discontinued. Several open-source software packages are bundled with Funnelback, including the and projects from the Apache Software Foundation, used for filtering and recommendations, respectively.
Languages Used
Funnelback's codebase uses several programming languages:
C for the core indexing and query processing components
Groovy for filters, workflow commands and user interface scripting
Java for crawling, filtering and database connectors
In March 2017, Funnelback was listed as a 'visionary' vendor on Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Insight Engines. Funnelback first appeared as a ‘niche’ vendor on Gartner’s Enterprise Search Magic Quadrant in 2015 as Squiz. In 2014, Gartner's Enterprise Search Magic Quadrant mentions Funnelback in passing, but did not place it on the quadrant. Ovum Ltd. summarised the product as being able to "deliver highly relevant, context-aware results, based on a user's location, interests, profile, or browsing history, to create a truly personalised experience". 451 Research Group noted the company's 30% revenue growth in 2010, especially in the UK.
Funnelback is currently provided as a Windows or Linux Installer or as a hosted service. These are sold through direct sales channels or Funnelback partners.
Previous Versions
Versions of Funnelback released prior to 2007 were available as 30-day trials, limited to 50,000 document indexes, and supplied via CD-ROM or accessible via the Funnelback website. In 2010, a now-deprecated OEM version of Funnelback, branded as SquizSearch, was bundled with Squiz's MySource Matrix product.
