Google coy about enterprise endeavors

Speaking at the launch of Google's latest Mini search appliance on Thursday, product marketing manager Arvind Desikan admitted that integrating different Google enterprise-class search technologies together, such as Desktop for Enterprise and Toolbar for Enterprise, would benefit business customers. "The more things we have integrated, the more useful it will be," he said.

But Desikan would not be drawn on whether Google is planning to develop its enterprise search tools to compete with entrenched knowledge management vendors such as the United Kingdom's Autonomy. "I won't speculate on the way this is heading. Basically, we are looking to take what Google did for consumers to the workplace," he said.

Knowledge management is a term that was extremely popular back at the turn of the millennium but suffers from a lack of a standard definition--with different vendors and analysts disagreeing on what it really means. At a basic level, knowledge management is about businesses managing internal information more effectively, including the tacit or unstructured information that resides with specific individuals.

Although Google may not have a knowledge management platform, its search products are being used by several large enterprises for extremely complex information management projects, according to Desikan. "We appear to have served the knowledge management needs of several large companies to date, including (British Airways) and Schlumberger," he said.

In a recent research report, analyst group Gartner claimed that nearly all large organizations have implemented knowledge management to support at least one critical business process. "While human knowledge may be an organization's most valuable asset, much of this knowledge is never shared. Harnessing critical knowledge, and using it to create a common vision and objectives, can move an organization closer to realizing a high-performance workplace," the report stated.

Commenting on whether Google has plans to push into the knowledge management arena, Desikan added that the line between search and knowledge management was a fine one. "It is a matter of semantics. Knowledge management is essentially about giving users the right information at the right time."

One sign that Google's enterprise search competitors may be feeling the heat was market leader Autonomy's decision to acquire competitor Verity in November, for about $500 million. The combined companies will be better placed to fight any strong moves by Google in the knowledge management arena as a result. Speaking to ZDNet UK sister site Silicon.com recently, Michael Lynch, chief executive of Autonomy, said he is intent on developing far more intuitive network searches within the enterprise.

Last month, Google announced a partnership with consultancy BearingPoint, formerly KPMG Consulting, to help the search giant cater to the search needs of specific industries, such as pharmaceuticals, banking, high technology and aerospace.

"Search as an application is becoming more and more in demand from within the enterprise," Chris Weitz, managing director of BearingPoint, said at the time. "Our research has shown that users already use Google all day long, and they want to continue to use it in other ways. We are going to extend it into parts of the enterprise it currently does not go."

Andrew Donoghue of ZDNet UK reported from London.