Google Search 2010: A mid-year report card

Toward the future

After entering API in the search box, I click across the tabs at the top of the page; for example, Google Code Web site and Google Code Groups. Third, I navigate to Google’s official YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/google, and I run a query for enterprise and then a separate query for APIs. The new videos are easy to spot. In the last six months, Google has done an arguably better job disseminating information via its YouTube channel than in its blogs and “official” documentation.

Third, Google’s enterprise application “marketplace” continues to grow. If you have not visited that outlet, go to Google.com and enter the query Google Apps Marketplace in the search box. The first link is to the store. You can take a quick look at the products, which include a number of categories. I start with the entries for “enterprise search” and do some clicking and scanning. What is surprising is that Google has yet to provide a seamless, integrated way to locate useful information about its enterprise services.

What is in the future? My 2007 study, Google Version 2.0, described the method by which Google can deliver most if not all of the GSA’s functions via the cloud. My view is that by the end of 2010, an enterprise will be able to “hook” together various functions, including some of the third-party indexing features of the GSA with Google’s cloud services. Full integration and a 100 percent cloud solution lies in the future. But more integration seems highly likely.

Instead of integrating Microsoft Exchange content with business intelligence data from Cognos (acquired by IBM), to name two supported third-party systems, an enterprise will have more integration options that essentially “snap in.” Until Google productizes those code components, an authorized Google integrator like Adhere Solutions (adheresolutions.com) can mesh various Google components today.

The challenge Google poses to competitors and prospects is the speed with which it moves. After 11 successful years, Google delights in making customers crack the Google code. The company has some work to do in making its wealth of products, services and resources more easily findable. In the meantime,  buckle down and explore Google. The payoff makes the effort worthwhile in many situations.

And Google’s mid-year grade? B+ and improving.