I can tell by the usage statistics that you haven't tried the Search API module yet! Run, don't walk, to the download page and give it a go. You'll have to pick yourself up a copy of the Entity module as well, but then you're all set.
The Search API lets you build customized indexes and searches. It's fantastic. It already integrates with Views, and can use either the database or Solr for the indexing. Since it's an extensible API we'll see other backends (Sphinx, Xapian, Mongodb, Couchdb etc) in no time at all. It has its own facet builder (for backends like Solr that support it).
As it is based on the Entity API you can decide to a very fine-grained level what data to index. You can also specify how that data should be processed (an orderable, extensible set of filters, handlers, processors has come to Drupal - yay!)
If you ignore this module you're really missing out. It's fab. It's bee's knees. I <3 it.
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Entity module
Just posting correct link for entity module Entity module
Thanks
Thanks a lot, Robert, for both the marketing and the compliments, I really appreciate it! :)
And it's perfect timing also, because right today I finished all those cool features and even created a screencast to show them off to a larger audience. So everyone not yet convinced by Robert's post, just take a look for yourself! ;)