Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express will be available as a free download and according to the company it combines simplicity of installation and ease of use with a powerful set of search features, including new security-enhanced capabilities that help businesses connect to a wide range of information.

A free releases candidate of Search Server 2008 Express is available here.

"Information workers waste as much as 9.5 hours each week on searches that don't turn up the right information, which can add up to millions of dollars in lost productivity every year," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general manager of the SharePoint Business Group at Microsoft. "We believe there is a core set of enterprise search features that every business should have, and we're delivering them for free in Search Server 2008 Express."

The final version of Search Server 2008 Express will be available in early 2008, Microsoft said, and is designed to be easy to configure and administer, allowing IT professionals to go from download to search in as little as 30 minutes.

Unlike other products aimed for the enterprise search, Search Server Express has no preset document limits, so it will scale to meet a company's evolving needs. For users, Search Server Express provides advanced security and easy access to relevant, action-oriented results using a familiar Web search experience.

“We also built Search Server Express with enterprise-class features, including relevancy tuning, security-trimmed search results, and great out-of-the-box administration and reporting.  One other significant improvement you’ll find is the removal of any pre-set document limits, giving you a lot of flexibility in the amount information you can index.” wrote Jonathan Kauffman, General Manager Enterprise Search, on his blog.

Microsoft will release also a paid version of Search Server Express, which will basically have the same features and capabilities, but it will be licensed to run in more than one physical server.

Besides searching the internal company files, Search Server Express has the ability to search external databases and websites, and also includes results from Microsoft’s Live.com.