Search-engine databases can handle full-text search faster than relational databases. For example, an e-commerce website can use search-engine databases to provide instant autocompletes or suggestions for its customers. Search-engine databases can sort relevant results based on characteristics such as name, price, category, or release data, and display the results in a structured view. 

Maintaining larger applications that are either distributed across several nodes or consist of several smaller applications searching for events in log files can become tedious. Search-engine databases can handle the logging more efficiently. You can centralize your logs from different applications by indexing them using a search-engine database. For example you can see the logs of your Apache web server combined with the log files of your application server. Because all the information is available in real time, you can implement a visual representation of what is happening in your system in real time, which can help you to find problems more quickly.