Google has launched a major update to the Google Search Appliance with version 7.2, aimed at making it easier for employees and customers to find documents and easier for businesses to organize data.

The new version comes with improvements to entity management.

“GSA 7.0 introduced entity recognition, which helps businesses categorize unstructured content by extracting entities—attributes like date, author and product type—from documents,” explains product manager Brent VerWeyst. “With GSA 7.2, you get a chance to test and tweak your entities before indexing begins. This helps ensure that the entities you choose and apply will work best for your organization’s needs.”

“Companies rely on GSA to make all their files discoverable from a single search box, no matter where they live,” he adds. “It does this with the help of components called connectors, which link GSA to various data sources and index their contents. In GSA 7.2, we’ve made the connector framework more scalable and flexible. Customers and partners can develop and improve custom connectors more easily, helping GSA become a truly universal information hub.”

The new version also adds “wildcard search,” so you can search for items without having to know the exact query you’re looking for. Google gives the example that you’re searching for part number 3728, and you can simply type “part number 37” and a wildcard character like an * to perform the query. The point is you don’t have to remember complicated terms or long numbers.

The new GSA also adds a redesigned admin console, better language support and advanced sorting.

You can download the update from the Google Support Portal.

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