You can find a list of all posts in the archive
Search engines are all about looking up strings. The user enters a query term that is then retrieved from the inverted index. Sometimes a user is looking for a value that is only a substring of values in the index and the user might be interested in those matches as well. This is especially important for languages like German that contain compound words like Semmelknödel where Knödel means dumpling and Semmel specializes the kind.
Microsoft Office has been the dominating office suite and unfortunately it still is. For a long time not only the programs were closed but also the file format.
Search is moving away from the simple keyword search box with a result list for indexed web pages. Features like facetting and aggregations offer completely new possibilities for data discovery, making them relevant for business applications as well.
I enjoy going to user group events. Not only because of the talks that are an integral part of most meetups but also to meet and chat with likeminded people.
One of the big advantages Elasticsearch has over Solr is that it is really easy to get started with. You can download it, start it, index and search immediately. Schema discovery and the JSON based REST API all make it a very beginner friendly tool.