This article on the need for further research and development into new database architectures is pretty interesting. Although somewhat technical in parts, I think I got the gist of it. I found this point interesting:
One interesting development worth noting, however, has to do with the integration of database systems and file systems. Individuals who keep thousands of e-mail messages, documents, photos, and music files on their own personal systems are hard-pressed to find much of anything anymore. Scale up to the enterprise level, where the number of files is in the billions, and you’ve got the same problem on steroids. Traditional folder hierarchy schemes and filing practices are simply no match for the information tsunami we all face today. Thus, a fully indexed, semistructured object database is called for to enable search capabilities that offer us decent precision and recall. What does this all signify? Paradoxically enough, it seems that file systems are evolving into database systems…
I wonder if this is how Apple’s new search technology, Spotlight, works? I haven’t really read that much about the technical underpinnings of it, so this is just a dumb guess. I know that supposedly, Longhorn (the next major version of Windows) also has a revolutionary search engine built into it.
Regardless, any talk about new database architectures will surely have significant ramifications for libraries who are still heavily reliant upon integrated library systems. Also for libraries who increasingly rely upon web-based searching capabilities as well as web services.