Google Seeks Clients of Enterprise Search Rivals

Google Inc. is going after clients of other enterprise search vendors with a new trade-in program aimed at fostering adoption of its Search Appliance, the Mountain View, California, company announced Tuesday.

Organizations that rip out their existing enterprise search systems and replace them with a Search Appliance by the end of the year will receive a free Google Mini, which is a simpler and less expensive version of the Search Appliance, according to Google.

The Google Search Appliance, first introduced in 2002, is designed to index information stored in a variety of server-based data repositories, such as intranets, public Web sites, relational databases, enterprise business applications, content management software and legacy systems.

The Google Mini is designed for small and medium-size organizations that want to make searchable the information in their intranets or public Web sites.

Both products are hardware boxes loaded with Google search software.

Google apparently hopes the replacement program will appeal in particular to customers of its enterprise search rival Verity Inc., which last week announced it will be sold to Autonomy Corp. PLC in a cash deal totaling around US$500 million.

In its statement Tuesday, Google refers to “the recent turmoil with providers of legacy search solutions” as a good reason for organizations to consider swapping out their current enterprise search systems for a Search Appliance.

The Google Search Appliance starts at $30,000 to search up to 500,000 documents, while the Google Mini costs $2,995 and searches up to 100,000 documents.

More information about the trade-in program can be found at http://www.google.com/switch.

By Juan Carlos Perez – IDG News Service (Miami Bureau)