In Search of the Perfect Search Experience

The information required for business decision-making and operational activities is contained within both structured and unstructured data sets, and these in turn are generally stored within siloed repositories and IT systems that are scattered across the enterprise. Furthermore, an increasing amount of actionable business information is now stored beyond the corporate firewall, either with partners and suppliers, or with customers and communities. Only through the application of Enterprise Search solutions can information workers ever expect to find all of the information required to complete a task and do their job; hence the continued arms-race amongst vendors competing in this very important arena.

It is no longer possible, if ever it was, for an individual to know where every piece of information is: that is why we have information systems. But in this ‘information age’ we are presented with something of a paradox, as although today we have access to more information than ever before, we often struggle to find that one piece of really useful information that we seek.

The market for Enterprise Search solutions has skyrocketed in recent years, as businesses and institutions seek to reduce the amount of wasted time and effort that is often part of ‘information work’. With over 70% of salaries now related to ‘information work’, one doesn’t have to be an accountant to work out that, if spent wisely, an investment in Enterprise Search technology can offer significant benefits to the business.

2006 was the year when Enterprise Search moved onto the corporate agenda, and ever since then vendors have been clamouring to get a piece of this valuable market. Autonomy, Endeca, Exalead, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle are just a few of the vendors with offerings in the Enterprise Search space, and new entrants with ancillary and niche offerings are appearing all the time.

2008 saw Microsoft increase its stake in the game when it bought Fast Search & Transfer, the Norwegian search vendor, for US$1.2 billion. Later the same year, IBM upgraded its own high-end product – OmniFind Enterprise Edition – to stay in the game, and Google announced an updated version of its Google Search Appliance.

In recent weeks we’ve seen pure-play companies Exalead and Endeca re-focus their strategies. French search company Exalead is gearing its CloudView offering more towards the Business Intelligence arena and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in an attempt to differentiate itself in the Enterprise Search market, and Endeca is also moving more towards the search-based applications end of the spectrum.

Even though the Enterprise Search sector is moving forward, its pace appears to be almost glacial when compared to the Web search market. Despite its continued reluctance to defile its pristine search results page, even Google recently introduced new search visualisation features. Named ‘Wonder Wheel’ and ‘Timeline’, these two new search options are designed to encourage users to look beyond the usual ‘Results 1-50 of about 1,280,000’ (the number of hits for ‘Enterprise Search’) by displaying search results in a more useful way.

However, if one wants to see real innovation in search interfaces and information visualisation then one should take a look at the likes of SearchMapr, KartOO, and Searchme. Alternatively, why not explore TouchGraph’s Google Browser to get a sense of how search results actually relate to one another?

One search engine we’re all going to hear about in the coming weeks is ‘Bing’ (unless Microsoft decides to call it something else). ‘Bing’ will undoubtedly introduce a new kind of search experience for the user, but will it be the experience that users want, and more importantly, will it transition well into the world of work just as Google’s did? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

With these and other innovations on the horizon, I think we can safely say that the consumer-oriented search experience is on the move. But will this have any impact on the Enterprise Search market? Well, in my opinion, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”