Feature Comparisons in SharePoint Search Versions

I have been asked this question few times by my MOSS Search customers. Question being: What is the difference in features in WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search?

One thing to note is that the Search in the 3 products are all based on the same Microsoft Search core indexing engine. However, there are differences between the 3 SharePoint search versions. This table does a comparison of features in the 3 products:
 

Feature

Search in WSS 3.0

Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search

Enterprise Search in MOSS 2007

What can be indexed

Local SharePoint content

SharePoint sites, Microsoft Exchange Server content, file shares, Lotus notes, custom content.

SharePoint sites, Microsoft Exchange Server content, file shares, Lotus notes, custom content, line-of-business (LOB) content.

Rich, relevant results

Yes

Yes

Yes

Alerts

RSS

Did you mean?

Collapsing of duplicates

Yes to all

Yes to all

Yes to all

Best bets

Results removal, Query reports

No to all

Yes to all

Yes to all

Search Center / Tabs

No

Search Center without Tabs

Search Center with Tabs

People search

Knowledge network

No to all

Yes to all

Yes to all

Business Data Search

No

No

Yes

Query Web service

https://<site>/_vti_bin/spsearch.asmx

https://<site>/_vti_bin/search.asmx

https://<site>/_vti_bin/search.asmx

Security trimming of search results

Yes; supports default security trimming only

Yes; supports default security trimming only

Yes; supports default and custom security trimming

Query syntax

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search SQL Syntax

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search Keyword Syntax

URL syntax

Enterprise Search SQL Syntax Reference

Enterprise Search Keyword Syntax Reference

Enterprise Search URL Syntax Reference

Enterprise Search SQL Syntax Reference

Enterprise Search Keyword Syntax Reference

Enterprise Search URL Syntax Reference

For more information, please see this article in the MOSS SDK: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981559.aspx

Hope that helps,
Mike