Search is an absolute essential to any successful intranet. And not just a search engine, an effective search engine. If its less than stellar, the search engine will become a distraction and detraction where the most common employee complaint will continue to be "I can't find anything!"
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While the key to effective search is more focused on the rules and processes (effective page titles, strong links, keywords, summaries, meta data, etc.), the supporting technology shouldn't be overlooked.
Google is now retailing Google Mini at an entry price of $2,995 -- a highly effective solution that indexes up to 100,000 documents. Prescient Digital Media now uses Google Mini on a client site (www.HealthyOntairo.com) and we're impressed by the feature set and ability to customize results and presentation. Particularly great is Google Mini's ability to interpret misspelled words (which you can set and hardcode yourself) and the Advanced Search options (try misspelling diabetes).
To meet demand, Google has now released two larger Minis: a second that finds up to 200,000 internal documents for $5,995; a third that indexes 300,000 documents $8,995. The full Google appliance for larger intranets starts at $30,000 and is reported to increase to as much as $600,000 for killer size intranets.
The Google Mini comes with one year of support, software updates, and hardware replacement coverage. It can be purchased online, directly from the Google Store with a credit card, check or purchase order. For more information, see http://mini.google.com.
Google Mini is a definite must for any organization looking at replacing their existing search capability, but don't forget the emphasis on rules and process...