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The Enterprise Search Report 2008 looks at... Google Appliance

"Even Google's marketing won't go so far as to call their implementation "enterprise-class security," instead favoring to highlight single sign-on (which the Appliance supports quite well). Document-level security is handled late-binding - the result sets are filtered for hits a searcher is allowed to see, which requires the system to fire off separate requests for each hit to see if it may be displayed. This has only one advantage - the authorization will be up-to-date to the second - but, certainly in Google's implementation, several drawbacks. "

More about The Enterprise Search Report 2008

 

There are hundreds of products in the Enterprise Search marketplace. To make your life easier, we list only 20 of them, divided into 8 categories. These are not the "best" search tools, simply -- in our judgment -- the most significant.

You can find a longer discussion of these categories -- along with independent profiles of these products -- in The 2008 Enterprise Search Report.

Platform Vendors

After various mergers, there are just two, each with multidimensional information management and access technology platforms. The platform vendors offer customers comprehensive (read: complex) frameworks on which search applications can be constructed.

• Autonomy - IDOL Server
  - HQ: San Francisco, CA, USA & Cambridge, UK -- Mentions: 13
• Fast Search & Transfer - Enterprise Search Platform (ESP)
  - HQ: Oslo, Norway -- Mentions: 22

Infrastructure Vendors

These are names you recognize, and your enterprise probably licenses products from them. Each wants to "own" the information management domain at their major customers, and each now recognizes the importance of search in that strategy.

• SAP - NetWeaver Enterprise Search
  - HQ: Walldorf, Germany -- Mentions: 5
• Microsoft - SharePoint Search Server
  - HQ: Redmond, WA, USA -- Mentions: 15
• IBM - OmniFind Enterprise Edition
  - HQ: White Plains, NY, USA -- Mentions: 7
• Oracle - Secure Enterprise Search 10g
  - HQ: Redwood Shores, CA, USA -- Mentions: 6

Specialized Search Players

A plethora of specialized suppliers have emerged to fulfill more specific needs, and some have now grown into large, thriving companies. With some exceptions, they tend to be higher priced and implementations can range from $50 - 250k or more.

• Recommind - Mindserver Enterprise Search
  - HQ: San Francisco, CA, USA
• Open Text - Discovery Server
  - HQ: Waterloo, Canada -- Mentions: 2
• Apache Project - Lucene 2.3.0
  - HQ: Global project -- Mentions: 1
• Exalead - exalead one:enterprise
  - HQ: Paris, FR -- Mentions: 3
• ISYS - ISYS Search Suite
  - HQ: Sydney, Australia -- Mentions: 3
• Vivisimo - Vivisimo Velocity
  - HQ: Pittsburgh, PA, US -- Mentions: 2
• Endeca - Information Access Platform
  - HQ: Cambridge, MA, US -- Mentions: 6
• Funnelback - Funnelback Server
  - HQ: Canberra, Australia -- Mentions: 2
• dtSearch - dtSearch
  - HQ: Bethesda, MD, US -- Mentions: 1
• InQuira - InQuira
  - HQ: San Bruno, CA, US
• Siderean Software - Seamark Navigator
  - HQ: El Segundo, CA, USA -- Mentions: 1
• Stratify - Discovery System
  - HQ: Mountain View, CA, US

Turn-key Search

If you don't want the hassle and expense of installing and tuning a high-end search system, you can always turn to a hosted ("SaaS") solution, or a search "appliance" that you plug into your network.

• Google - Google Search Appliance
  - HQ: Mountain View, CA, US -- Mentions: 31
• Thunderstone - Thunderstone Search Appliance
  - HQ: Cleveland, OH, US -- Mentions: 3
• VisualSciences - Search
  - HQ: San Diego, CA, USA -- Mentions: 4

Basic Search Vendors

Do you really need a lot of fancy search bells and whistles? Maybe not, and in fact, they could just get in the way, especially for simple Website or SharePoint search. Those are the scenarios these vendors target.

• Mondosoft - MondoSearch
  - HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark -- Mentions: 4
• Coveo - Coveo Enterprise Search
  - HQ: Québec, PQ, Canada -- Mentions: 4
• Innerprise - ES.NET 2004
  - HQ: Scottsdale, AZ, US

Open Source

These toolsets are less "out-of-the-box," than commercial counterparts, but they are typically well engineered and community-supported.

• ht:Dig - ht://Dig
  - HQ: Global project
• Apache Project - Jakarta Lucene
  - HQ: Global project -- Mentions: 3
• Swish - Swish-e
  - HQ: Global project

Wondering how we compile these lists? Review our criteria.