Google Mini, a low-priced box for corporate intranet search

[intelliot]

With the new product, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company hopes to broaden its search-appliance business to cater to smaller businesses with fewer documents and tighter budgets. The blue box, which plugs into a corporate intranet and searches up to 50,000 documents, was launched Thursday at Google.com for $4,995.

By comparison, Google's seminal search appliance, introduced in 2002, starts at more than $30,000. It searches 100,000 documents or more.

In addition, the company will introduce an upgrade to its larger search appliance that will give customers new security controls, among other features.

Appliance sales have been a sideline business for Google, which has made its name in Web search with simple and relevant results. Analysts estimate that sales from its enterprise search products make up only $50 million of its annual revenue, a fraction of its near billion-dollar advertising business.

"It's a matter of focus. They've been focused on their core business," said Laura Ramos, vice president at Forrester Research.

But that's poised to change, said Dave Girouard, Google's enterprise general manager.

"While it's certainly small, we view it very much as a growing market. In terms of research and development and sales and marketing, you'll see us do more," Girouard said. "We're a fast-growing business and we're profitable, and we think there's a strong need for search inside companies."

Girouard said the Google Mini is in the sweet spot of the enterprise business because it will appeal to more companies that need search but are typically priced out of the market. With its latest upgrade, the company is also improving the technology to delve into and search specialized databases, such as Oracle's.

Still, Google faces numerous competitors in enterprise search, including Fast Search & Transfer, Autonomy and Verity, the industry's largest player. Also, many companies, including Inktomi and Altavista (both now owned by Yahoo) have tried to cater to small businesses and failed.

But Ramos said that the Google Mini could eventually be a big market for the company.

"Those other companies didn't have the deep pockets that Google does and don't have the brand recognition," she said.

http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/

I wonder if I should try signing up for the tour on Monday January 17. No school that day...

[cvrk3]

Google apparently has not lost touch with reality!!

[Stuff2Do]

i want one of them to setup and play about with, i dont wanna pay and i havent got the money, but it would be cool to "have" just to try an do stuff with it, anyway, its cool, i spent ages lookin at the flash thingys of it, hehe

[Randy]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. late on Wednesday unveiled the "Mini," a new hardware product aimed at helping small businesses add search to their public Web sites and giving employees more tools to find information quickly on internal networks.

Google gets a small percentage of its revenue from its Google Search Appliance, which is priced from $32,000 to more than $500,000 and is sold mainly to big companies looking to search company Web sites and intranets.

The Web search leader aims to extend its reach with the Mini, which has fewer bells and whistles and sells for just under $5,000. For example, it can search 50,000 documents compared with the 15 million that can be handled by Google's top-end Search Appliance.

Google also said it has beefed up its Search Appliance to search structured data stored in widely used databases from companies like Oracle Corp. and IBM, said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google Enterprise.

The hardware also supports several new languages and includes new security features related to controlling employee access to information.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, made a splash last summer with its $1.7 billion auction-style initial public offering.

Continu e Reading

[intelliot]

Hmm, it only allows searching 50,000 documents. That's not very many - using Google Desktop Search on my computer is "Searching 162,714 items".

[intelliot]

Enrollment Request Received

Thank you. You have successfully submitted your enrollment for the following event:

Google Mini Demo
January 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm
Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00, San Jose)

You will receive an email confirmation of your enrollment, which provides detailed information about joining the event.

If I don't forget it, I'll let you guys know how it goes

[intelliot]

The demo is going on now. Does anyone have any questions about the Google Mini?

Demo is over. I saved the audio and some screenshots for later use.

[geekerati]

Google’s Mini, which is an integrated hardware/software search appliance that indexes all content within a company’s intranet or public website, now has twice the search capacity at an even more affordable price. The Google Mini can now search up to 100,000 documents for a lower price of $2,995.

The Google Mini was announced in January and is currently used by hundreds of law firms, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, consulting firms, government agencies and other small-to-medium sized businesses to access and manage their information.

“Our attorneys are continually searching for information. The Google Mini helps them find exactly what they need, when they need it, using an interface they’re already familiar with,” said John Neubauer, Legal Administrator for Blitman & King LLP. “With the increased capacity of the Google Mini, we will now be able to include even more legal research in our index. This will help us leverage more of our firm’s valuable intellectual property, making our attorneys more efficient and more responsive to our clients.”

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