Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008

tregli@cmswatch.com(Theresa Regli and Adriaan Bloem) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:16:00 -0500

You might be tempted to select enterprise search vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli argues that you need to look more closely at product and vendor alike -- and understand where both are headed -- to properly evaluate your longterm risks and opportunities in an evolving marketplace...

Microsoft and search: the year of the dog?

search-analyst@cmswatch.com(Stephen Arnold) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:38:00 -0500

Search engine vendors Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, Fast Search & Transfer, Google, and Mondosoft, among others just did a little dance for joy. Why? As you've doubtless heard, Microsoft has delayed the release of Vista, as well as its next-generation Office suite and much-needed server-side rebuilds. Microsoft today has no single enterprise search system that can perform what customers with SharePoint, Exchange, and other Microsoft bits and pieces want to do: find disparate emails and documents. Microsoft is, in effect, leaving the 2006 enterprise search market to other systems that can work in the crazy-quilt frameworks of Microsoft products. Had Redmond hit its 2006 ship dates, it might have had a chance to slow the recent surge of third-party search systems. Both Fast Search and Google should be able to step in to help Microsoft-dependent organizations solve their "findability" problems. Smaller vendors like Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, and Mondosoft reported strong gains in 2005. Microsoft's inability to get its basic product out the door could fuel these companies' growth. Indeed, they could not have asked for a better Chinese New Year's present. For Microsoft, 2006 is the year of the dog.

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Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008

Microsoft and search: the year of the dog?