April 13, 2007 at 15:02Enterprise Search - A New Battleground for Microsoft and Google
In the enterprise search market, Microsoft and Google occupy fundamentally different positions. So, Google believes that home and corporate users are the same people who can use the same product. Microsoft clarifies: yes, these are the same people, but they have different needs at home and at work, so they need different tools.
The debate on this fundamental issue took place between Google and Microsoft at the Gilbane conference on corporate content management systems.
Jared Spataro, Microsoft Corporate Search Team Leader, described the situation like this. There are three main categories of search engines for business:
1) simple (commodity);
2) high-level specialized systems;
3) mid-level services (“true enterprise” services).
Microsoft is developing all three of these areas. At the same time, Google, he said, is a custom brand, albeit with very big ambitions. The famous slogan "organize all the information of the world" Jared Spataro called "a fantastic goal."
Microsoft looks at the problem more broadly and is trying to develop complete solutions for working with information. “We are focusing on what users are going to do with this information,” Spataro said. He compared a Google search with a nail that a competitor is trying to solve any problem, because the only tool he owns is a hammer.
Nitin Mangtani, the head of the Google Search Appliance, immediately got into a dispute with a colleague. “We understand the differences in corporate search,” he said and added that most of his department’s employees had previously worked in corporate search divisions of other companies, including Microsoft. The number of Google corporate customers exceeds 7000 companies, including large ones such as Boeing, Honeywell and Intel - all of them have installed the Google Mini Search Appliance software and hardware complex , which is sold in various versions for as low as $ 2000 (the cheapest version indexes a maximum of 50 000 documents).
A Google spokesperson emphasized the “omnivorous” Google Mini Search Appliance, which indexes files in 220 formats, including Oracle databases, wiki, SAP servers, and other exotics — all accessible through a single search interface. It does not matter which corporate system the customer uses, it will index everything in any case and will perform search results depending on the rights of each employee to access this or that information.
Corporate search systems are developed not only by Google and Microsoft, but also by other companies. For example, this year SAP will introduce such a system. It will be closely integrated with workflow processes. For example, a search by employee’s name immediately displays lists of surnames to whom this employee submitted reports and from whom he received, as well as ratings and performance ratings of this employee.
via InternetNews
The debate on this fundamental issue took place between Google and Microsoft at the Gilbane conference on corporate content management systems.
Jared Spataro, Microsoft Corporate Search Team Leader, described the situation like this. There are three main categories of search engines for business:
1) simple (commodity);
2) high-level specialized systems;
3) mid-level services (“true enterprise” services).
Microsoft is developing all three of these areas. At the same time, Google, he said, is a custom brand, albeit with very big ambitions. The famous slogan "organize all the information of the world" Jared Spataro called "a fantastic goal."
Microsoft looks at the problem more broadly and is trying to develop complete solutions for working with information. “We are focusing on what users are going to do with this information,” Spataro said. He compared a Google search with a nail that a competitor is trying to solve any problem, because the only tool he owns is a hammer.
Nitin Mangtani, the head of the Google Search Appliance, immediately got into a dispute with a colleague. “We understand the differences in corporate search,” he said and added that most of his department’s employees had previously worked in corporate search divisions of other companies, including Microsoft. The number of Google corporate customers exceeds 7000 companies, including large ones such as Boeing, Honeywell and Intel - all of them have installed the Google Mini Search Appliance software and hardware complex , which is sold in various versions for as low as $ 2000 (the cheapest version indexes a maximum of 50 000 documents).
A Google spokesperson emphasized the “omnivorous” Google Mini Search Appliance, which indexes files in 220 formats, including Oracle databases, wiki, SAP servers, and other exotics — all accessible through a single search interface. It does not matter which corporate system the customer uses, it will index everything in any case and will perform search results depending on the rights of each employee to access this or that information.
Corporate search systems are developed not only by Google and Microsoft, but also by other companies. For example, this year SAP will introduce such a system. It will be closely integrated with workflow processes. For example, a search by employee’s name immediately displays lists of surnames to whom this employee submitted reports and from whom he received, as well as ratings and performance ratings of this employee.
via InternetNews