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According to Google, its new "Search Appliance" will simplify corporate searches by administrators and make it easier for employees to find relevant information on their employer's intranet.
The Google Search Appliance is a specialised piece of computer hardware integrated with software and is aimed at corporate intranets and Web servers. According to the company, it allows users to search Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, PostScript and other file types, as well as Web-enabled documents.
Already Google's free Web-based search tools at www.google.com let the public search documents across formats and view PDF files as normal text rather than pictures. Google said its Web site is now attracting around 150 million queries a day.
Google also said that its Search Appliance is capable of tracking and analysing URLs to provide information about a company's network. The tool uses Google's document ranking system, which has played a major part in its general search engine site.
The device is to be sold in two forms: the GB-1001, which can be mounted in a server rack, is aimed at departments and medium-sized companies and will store up to 150,000 documents. It will retail at USD20,000, which includes two years of support and software updates. The GB-8008, which is a freestanding device, is for large corporations with millions of documents and starts at USD250,000.
Google is not alone in offering such a service. It will face competition from on-line rivals such as Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista, and from companies like Verity that already specialise in tools to make corporate networks more searchable.
If successful the Search Appliance will provide Google with a much-needed additional revenue stream. The privately held company may be among the most popular search engines due to its speed and accuracy, but its decision not to accept banner or pop-up on-line advertising has proven somewhat costly.
Currently, Google generates revenue from selling its search service to portals such as Yahoo, as well as licensing it to businesses like Cisco for use on their public Web sites. The company also sells sponsored search links and recently launched a catalogue-specific search directory.
Google has so far resisted charging for searches, but it may eventually be forced to follow the lead of some of its competitors.
Northern Light, for instance, charges consumers for access to a content library of 30 million articles from 7,000 periodicals. And NetSurfer Digest, which has been in existence since the mid-1990s, said at the start of 2002 that it was going to have to charge USD20 a year for its three weekly lists of links due to falling banner ad rates.
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