SurfRay, maker of Ontolica and twice bankrupt search software company, announced availability of Ontolica 4.0 for SharePoint. This new version, according to the announcement, includes functionality long promised by the various executives that have helmed the firm. Specifically, they seem to have finally made good on their promise to deliver BehaviorTracking search analytics (SurfRay has removed all references to this product on their website), as well as the never-released Ontolica Reporting (also no longer mentioned on their site) in this new version.

I agree with my colleague Adriaan Bloem in asking the question: is Ontolica 4.0 really a major release or just repackaging bits that have been in development -- on and off -- for the better part of two years.

As readers of the SharePoint Report 2009 may discover, SurfRay was removed from our reviewed vendors in the SharePoint ISV ecosystem. While we’ve never included a significant number of vendor reviews in the report, SurfRay’s financial instability and the inability to bring product to market required their removal. It now remains to be seen whether they can compete with other search add-on vendors who have continued to innovate without same business woes. The history of SurfRay would suggest otherwise, but as Tony Byrne quipped: old software never dies...