The Meaning of Search

IT Pro recently featured an article on enterprise search that brings some welcome clarity to an otherwise often muddied topic. Entitled “Why enterprise search is not internet search“, the article points to distinctions that we’ve been talking about for a while: namely, that the requirements for search within an enterprise are very different than the needs of a user searching the Internet. (For a couple additional reports on the topic, check out “The Google Bamboozle,” an article we penned in iMediaConnection.com a few months ago, or “A Fork in the Road: Why Enterprise and Web Search are Going Their Separate Ways“, which was published recently on DMReview.com.)

The article leads with a common question:

“…Google is where most of us turn when we need to find something on the web. Wouldn’t it make sense to use the same techniques to make it easier to find information within the enterprise?”

Given the broad usage of Google today, if that were the case, enterprises would today find themselves much better off when it comes to serving employees’ knowledge needs. But the article goes on to feature the following stats, which demonstrate that’s clearly not the case:

“Depending on which survey you look at, businesses waste the equivalent of 10 per cent of salary costs (says the Butler Group) or information workers waste around three to four hours a week – a total of five weeks a year - because they don’t find the information they’re looking for a third to a half of the time (IDC and HP).”

These stats point to a fact that knowledge management folks have been clear on for some time: For all its benefits and ubiquity, Google can’t address an enterprise’s need to equip users with fast, easy access to corporate resources. To give just one practical example, when a customer agent requires quick access to solutions that help a customer address an issue, that information needs to be available immediately—and a Web search tool won’t cut it. Plus, search is just one important piece of the knowledge management ecosystem, which requires capabilities for developing, collaborating, and delivering corporate knowledge.

While this may be common knowledge to many, a lot of confusion around search remains.  For many, “Google” has become synonymous with “search”, but it is clear there are a whole host of uses, audiences, technologies, and purposes within this broad category. It’s nice to see IT Pro shedding some light on the topic, which will hopefully help foster more productive discussions around search in the enterprise.

To read the full article, which also includes a quote from InQuira customer Serena Software, here’s the url:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/608925/why-enterprise-search-is-not-internet-search