Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is the king of Internet search. Now, it looks like it wants to be the king of intranet search.
The intranet is composed of the myriad internal corporate websites and communications systems. Obviously, for security reasons, the intranet is not available to the public.
Well, this week Google launched two major products for corporate search. The Google search product is an appliance -- that is, a combination of hardware/software, so a company has to install it on premises. In turn, companies are able to access the system from a Web browser.
As built, the platform utilizes the power of Google technology, which is highly scalable. For example, one appliance can index up to 15 million documents. Something else: The system is highly secure, but you must set privileges on who can see what data. After all, such things as payroll can be highly sensitive in terms of privacy!
To be sure, corporate search is a fairly complex endeavor. "Some information is on an individual's desktop, other information is scattered across multiple corporate applications, and further useful information might be found on the Internet," said Mini Peiris, who is the vice president of product management at NetSuite.
In fact, Google has partnered with top companies to make their countless applications searchable, such as Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN), Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), SAP (NYSE: SAP), Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), and yes, NetSuite. Google sells these corporate products based on a licensing model -- with pricing starting at $1,995 (for small companies) and $30,000 (for large companies).
In just a few years, Google has shown lots of traction in enterprise search. According to IDC, the firm is now ranked No. 3 in terms of market share, and it is growing the business at about 100% per year.
Also, millions of people have become accustomed to the Google user interface. So adopting Google search in the enterprise world seems natural, especially since Google has a reputation for outstanding technology expertise.
Even though Google is now a large company and far from its startup roots, it still continues to innovate -- and to reach into new markets. Given the enormous amount of corporate data on intranets, corporate search looks like yet another multibillion-dollar market opportunity for Google.
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Fool contributor
Tom Taulli
does not own shares mentioned in this article.
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