Officials of Microsoft and Google traded comparisons of their enterprise search products to their rival's during a technology conference in San Francisco Wednesday.

To underscore that it was all in fun, Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google's search appliance business, feigned throwing a punch at Jared Spataro, group product manager for Microsoft's enterprise search, as they shared a stage at the Gilbane Conference on enterprise technology issues.

Like Web surfers searching the Internet, enterprises need search engines for their own IT networks for finding important files, digital presentations, databases and other internal information.

Microsoft's Spataro said Google may be the leader in the consumer Internet search market, but that doesn't necessarily translate into success in the enterprise market where more sophisticated functionality is needed. He outlined three general markets for enterprise search including entry-level commodity search functions where Google is the leader. A middle market offers some additional features enterprises need and also is scalable as a company grows. The third, high-end market delivers very sophisticated search techniques, such as those designed for e-discovery.

Spataro claims Microsoft is better positioned than is Google to serve those middle and high-end markets.

"We think we have a much more compelling solution for the enterprise space because we understand the IT professionals who buy it, we understand their needs and how to service these folks," he said.

But Google's expertise in consumer search extends into the enterprise markets, said Mangtani.

"We understand the needs of the high-end markets. There is some perception with a small segment of the market that we don't, but we have all the tools the market needs," said Mangtani.

It's not yet clear, however, whether Google can be as successful in enterprise search as it has been in consumer search, said Michael Maziarka, director of InfoTrends, a market research firm, because enterprises need search that is integrated with their other business process software.

"A document needs to be seen in context. Who created it, when was it created, what was the role of the person who created the document? For a business, that information is critical," he said.

Microsoft's Windows Live Search combines search of the enterprise network, the Internet and individual desktop computers.

Google offers Google Search Appliance and Google Mini, hardware that contains Google software to facilitate enterprise search. The Google Mini starts at as low as US$2,000.

While praising the Google Mini for the simplicity of its design and interface, Maziarka says other enterprise software makers like Microsoft, SAP or Oracle may be closer to the enterprise buyer than Google.