One size does not fit all with search engines

Consider the Google Appliance. Each Appliance can be extended using the Google OneBox API (http://code.google.com/enterprise documentation/oneboxguide.html). The API makes it possible for a savvy licensee or an authorized Google partner to make the Appliance perform most of the tricks associated with state-of-the-art search systems. The Appliance can make content available from different systems and repositories in a single interface. Analysts describe that function as federation or federated search. Users don’t know the term, but they want available information searchable from one interface.

The OneBox API can hook third-party applications into the Appliance and display reports, graphics and facts pulled from enterprise systems. The Google Appliance can generate maps that mash up information from different sources. For licensees who want to add natural language processing to the Appliance, Bitext (bitext.com) provides an easy-to-install NLP subsystem.

The Google Appliance, therefore, is not a so-so search engine. It is simply a hardware device that makes it possible for motivated licensees and resellers to craft access solutions needed by a particular organization’s users. In a sense, Google’s Appliance is neither a Trojan horse purpose-built to get Google into an organization, nor a limited-function search "toaster" appliance. The Google Appliance is a trainable workhorse, handling certain functions that enhance keyword queries. As surprising as it seems, the Google Appliance is more like the customizable systems from Autonomy, Endeca and FAST than like systems that offer few features and cannot be extended. Users want entity extraction, summarization and assisted navigation or point-and-click interfaces.

What the Google Appliance does well is make it almost painless to deploy search in a very short time. Google’s engineers have also made it possible for those who want to customize to build a tailored system. The extensibility comes from the Google OneBox API, and from the increasing array of widgets, third-party integrators and engineers who are using the Appliance as a way to reduce the time required for hardware procurement and configuration to free up time to concentrate on delivering services users demand.

Recall that enterprise search is dead. The vendors are offering products that, by definition, leave keyword retrieval, unstable systems and budget-breaking costs behind. Most of the companies offering enterprise search systems will find the market’s expectations changing rapidly.

Google—and its 11,500 Appliance installations at the end of 2007—will have to change as well. Search is a work in progress. Giants like Microsoft are providing a software search appliance and including enterprise search in SharePoint and its other server products. Even IBM has teamed with Yahoo (yahoo.com) and gives away a crippled version of Lucene. Fence-straddler Oracle offers its Secure Enterprise Search (SES 11g) solution and also peddles Google’s Appliance. For tough bargainers, most search vendors will throw away the price list and ask, "How much do you want to spend?"

Neither Google nor any other vendor is flawless. Judge for yourself in head-to-head comparisons. Take analysts’ observations under advisement. Gather your requirements, collect your facts firsthand and then decide. Yes, search is dead. But we’re moving beyond search.