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Google In A Box
26199 writes "The BBC is reporting on an interesting product from Google -- a shiny yellow box to add to your server rack. The box is a Linux computer, and it provides Google search facilities for your company's intranet. Just remember to think about the security implications before you install one... the article does a good job of discussing the risks." As the article points out, in-house google boxes are not a brand-new product, but now they're pushing them harder.
Google has had a search appliance for some time now. This really isn't new news that I can tell.
"As the article points out, in-house google boxes are not a brand-new product, but now they're pushing them harder."
Did you even get past the title before posting? Really, feel free to RTFA.
The Google Appliance has been around for years.
Gabriel Ricard
I wrote in another thread long ago about these. Actually, the price point is excellent.
Choice A: Write an in-house app and keep it up to date and useful. Assume a half-timer to write this in 4 months plus another half-timer to do the UI, then a half-timer to debug/test it in 4 months because it didn't quite work right, plus a quarter time sysadmin for it since it's going to be high load.
Already we're 8 months into developing this and don't actually _have_ a working search engine, and we've blown 2/3rds of a yearly FTE. And that's being generously low in my staffing estimates.
Choice B: Toss google half a yearly FTE in pay to do it for you, and it's ready in a week, up, working stable, and you don't have to _do_ anything. And you get free maintenance and updates.
Easy choice, if you're a real company. And yes, I've worked at a place that finally got one of these-- they're great. Incredibly useful, and a big cost savings.
A.