Enterprise Search, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5. The Business of Search

Such has been the pace of change in the search business, that this chapter has had to be totally rewritten for this edition. All of the largest independent search vendors have now been acquired. There are still some that have found market niches, but given the rate of adoption of open source search, their business strategy is going to have to be agile. This chapter provides an introduction to the search business, with more details on open source search and on Microsoft SharePoint in Chapters 6 and 7, respectively.

Tracking developments in the business of search is eased substantially by the work of Stephen Arnold and his team of researchers who compile the Beyond Search blog, as well as publish reports on various sectors of the market. International Data Corporation and Gartner Group also track developments in this sector, but this research is only available to corporate subscribers. Gartner Group also prepares an annual Magic Quadrant report on this sector that is usually released publicly fairly quickly after publication by one or more of the vendors who have been given a strong endorsement in the review.

The Acquisition Frenzy

Over the last decade, search vendors have come and (mostly) gone. Their technology was generally good, but until recently there was no compelling reason for organizations to invest in search technology. Moreover, large multinational companies required global support and most of the vendors had very limited marketing, ...