Google, IBM team up for search service

Google, IBM team up for search service
The World's Largest Computer Services Company, International Business Machines Corp. has joined forces with the No. 1 Search Company Google Inc. to provide companies an advanced search tool.

IBM has decided to combine its OmniFind Corporate Search System with Google's Desktop search to develop a data-management solution that will allow companies to manage unorganized data across different formats and locations.

IBM's enterprise search technology is already being used by companies to search organized databases, while Google's Desktop Search is popular with many consumer users for searching data on their PCs. A combination of the two will provide a holistic data-management solution that will help manage unorganized data also.

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IBM will create a new plug-in for its WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind to search and retrieve content existing on any kind of format or structure viz. emails, word documents excel sheets, pdf files, multi-media presentations, web pages and databases, using Google's Desktop Search. “Getting these two products makes sense for both of us. If you want to have a good corporate search product, you have to have desktop search.” said David Girouard, General Manager, Enterprise Business Unit, Google Inc.

The alliance in which no money was exchanged, is another step in IBM's latest 'Information as a Service' approach with which the company hopes to boost its dipping sales and shares. IBM has invested as much as US$1billion on Research and Development and has made several acquisitions for its new strategy. On the other hand, Google's affiliation with IBM is being seen as a move to strengthen its competition against the software giant Microsoft.

In any event, the technology tie-up will not only provide IBM with an access into a huge, yet hitherto untapped market, but will also provide Google with inroads into Corporate Information Technology. And needless to say, users will get a much more effective search option.