Businesses today want actionable insights into their data—they want their data to reveal itself to them in a natural and user–friendly form. What could be more natural than human language? Natural–language search is at the center of a storm of ever–increasing web–driven demand for human–computer communication and information access. SQL Server 2008 provides the tools to take advantage of the features of its built–in enterprise–level natural–language search engine in the form of Integrated Full–Text Search (iFTS). Integrated Full–Text Search uses text–aware relational queries to provide your users with fast access to content. Whether you want to set up an enterprise–wide Internet or intranet search engine or create less ambitious natural–language search applications, this book will teach you how to get the most out of SQL Server 2008 Integrated Full–Text Search:

• Introducing powerful Integrated Full–Text Search features in SQL Server such as the FREETEXT and CONTAINS predicates, custom thesauruses, and stop lists
• Showing you how to optimize full–text query performance through features like full–text indexes and iFilters
• Providing examples that help you understand and apply the power of Integrated Full–Text Search in your daily projects

What you’ll learn

• Harness the power of iFTS for your applications.
• Administer iFTS catalogs and indexes.
• Use new iFTS features such as stop lists and iFTS–based dynamic management functions.
• Optimize and tune iFTS queries.
• Implement language–aware, natural–language searches for data.
• Simplify searches of structured and unstructured content.

Who is this book for?

The audience for this book includes SQL Server SQL and Transact–SQL developers, and also .NET developers, who want to take advantage of the new Integrated Full–Text Search (iFTS) functionality available in SQL Server 2008.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.