Google eyes corporate buck with search-in-a-box

Google has targeted the corporate market with the launch of its Search Appliance technology.

The company currently derives revenue from ads on its consumer search engine and licensing technology. This third revenue stream sees it pursue the likes of AltaVista and Ask Jeeves who already have similar products.

The Google Search Appliance is a box that, for around $20,000, will use Google technology to trawl through 150,000 documents stored on databases and systems. Businesses can expect to pay up to $250,000 for a more advanced option.

Noah Yasskin, director of European research at Jupiter MMXI, said that although diversification has helped Google in the past, attempts by AltaVista and Ask Jeeves to deliver similar corporate search offerings haven't really worked.

Yasskin said: "It's a hard nut to crack. It's a nice facility to have but most business content isn't that hard to search."

Rebecca Ulph, a media analyst at Forrester Research, said although more companies are becoming aware of the importance of this search technology internally as a necessity, take-up is still at a very early stage.

Ulph said: "It will take a while for it to become significant. Google will have to establish itself - like Inktomi which has an established band.

However, she added that Google-in-a-box will be cheaper than some of the other services around and will give businesses a easy way to get used to the concept of using the technology inhouse.