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Google Search Appliance: A License to Forget Intranet Usability?
November 08, 2005
Google is clearly interested in increasing its presence in internal search, now offering a free Google Mini to any company replacing its current enterprise search system with a Google Search Appliance (GSA).
Google's offer uses a couple case studies to show how effective Google internal search tools can be for the enterprise. One claims that user complaints were reduced by about 95%. That's clearly a good thing. The other case study notes that employee searches "increase[d] by 8-10x" over their previous numbers.
If an increase of internal searches mirrors an overall increase of intranet usage, that's good. But if searches increase while the user base remains static, I'm not so sure.
If we can assume that the rise of popularity of Google (now I'm talking about web search, not enterprise search) implies a certain chaos to the web in general, what does a ten-fold increase in internal searches say about the usability of your intranet as a whole?
Enterprise search solutions are critical for keeping employees productive and informed. But if your intranet ignores several other key usability aspects (such as navigation, file-naming, and content formats) and encourages employees to run right for the search box, the overall productivity increase likely isn't as high as it could be.
One final question*: If a company has already purchased a Google Search Appliance, what is it going to do with a Google Mini? Personally, I'd rather Google reduce the price of the GSA by the price of the Mini - which would represent a 10% discount off the GSA's $30,000 price tag.
* It's rhetorical. I'm sure some of you could find plenty to do with a Mini, but if you already had the Appliance, would you need the Mini?
All posts by Erik Dafforn
posted by Erik Dafforn at November 8, 2005 11:02 PM
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