Google And IBM Team Up Search Technology

An Anonymous Reader wrote to mention a Reuters report on the teaming of IBM and Google over Google's Desktop search technology. From the article: "IBM is linking up its OmniFind corporate search system with Google's free desktop search for business to make it easier for users to locate information throughout an organisation that is often locked up in many separate systems ... Google wins IBM's endorsement among corporate technical managers for its desktop search product and IBM gives corporate information workers an already popular entry point into back-office databases through Google's search. Searchable data ranges from e-mail to computer files to blog postings to corporate repositories of data, images, audio or video, Prial said. Much of this is not available using public Web search tools. Typically, it is hard to reach inside a company except by trawling through many different programs."

Comments

But will they like what they find?

[King_TJ]

It occurs to me that setting up this powerful of a search tool throughout the typical business means at least initially, people are going to dredge up all sorts of unexpected and perhaps unwanted things. (Say, just for example, a middle manager is working on plans for giving out raises or pay cuts for the next year. He might have an Excel or Word document or two out on a shared network drive mentioning some of his rough drafts for the idea. Bad idea of course, because he should be saving that stuff in a more secure place - but you know how things go. Might have even saved a version of a file there completely by accident? Traditionally, it would go unnoticed in most cases. But what if another employee is playing with the search tools, looking for all documents related to salary - and finds out what all of his co-workers are going to get paid next year?)

It'll only take one or two such incidents before management will demand removal or a serious lock-down of people's ability to use the search tools.

Also, think of the shock some people might get when their boss starts searching the contents of everyone's corporate email for key phrases. Once again, sure - we all get the general idea that "business email is not private", but how many of us took what seemed to be an infinitely small risk and made a couple off-color jokes, jabs at management, or other such things in an outgoing email written to a buddy over lunch break or something? Did you remember to make sure all that stuff was removed from your "sent items" or "deleted items" folders?

Web search for IBM with Google!

[bubulubugoth]

THe IBM site es HUGE... really, really huge, and trying to find something specific is very hard, usng the search tool provided by IBM.

For example, trying to get to the Java JRE 1.4 for PPC 32 bits, to use at my IBOOK, is much more easier with google than ibm own serch engine.

Also, my last painfully search at IBM, looking for development information for their JPOS implementation, was almost impossible with IBM serch engine, but using google, wasnt so much..

Really IBM should hire or use the google services...Maybe this is a beggining... And IBM partering with Google, one more thing to worry about for Microsoft.

IBM lately, with porting a lot of apps to Linux, is showing a remarked "low profile" hostility to M$..

They are a lot of benefits if you switch from MS to Linux at IBM products...