RDBMS systems are not particularly good at full-text searching to begin with (I'm not quite sure how SQL Server handles this,
AFAIK SQL Server uses MS Index Server for this.
Oracle requires something like Intermedia, an add-on package). Zope does a pretty darn good job at full-text searching attributes and method results of objects in the ZODB. It's transparent to the application as well. Most RDMBS system full-text search facilities require... thought. ZCatalog really doesn't most of the time, it just works. It would be nice to have this kind of transparency for full-text searching of RDBMS systems as well.
I remember I once saw a mention of ZCatalog being able to index the records of a dbms, when they were traversable through the web because it made no difference between object and record properties (both being accessible through a URL). Was this false information, or was I just dreaming? Rik