When Google unveiled the Mini search appliance in January 2005, it offered a way for small businesses to take Web search into their own hands and also take advantage of Google search technology on their own Web sites.
In the two-and-a-half-years since the Mini hit the streets, Google has revved, streamlined and lowered the price of the blue search appliance. Google claims that currently 9,000 businesses use either the Mini or its higher-end enterprise appliance. "When you look at entry-level search, the Mini and the Google Search appliances dominate," said Matt Brown, principal analyst at Forrester.
Despite that success, not every small business with a Web site can afford the $2,000 starting price for the Mini or has the staff to set up and maintain the hardware and search software, so it seemed only a matter of time before the search giant offered a business-grade Web-based search service.
Looks, No Ads
Google today announced Google Custom Search Business Edition, which is based on Google's Custom Search Engine introduced last year. While the earlier search service was free, it required the inclusion of Google keyword-generated ads. The new service, among other things, recognizes that businesses that make some or all of their living on the Web may not want third-party ads and may not have the technical chops in house to support the hardware.
The hosted service is designed to offer a simple and inexpensive way for small businesses to add Google search to their Web sites. In fact, according to Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management for Google Enterprise, adding the search services takes only three simple steps and can be completed in about 10 minutes.
After you sign up for the service, the process, Glotzback said, is as follows: You identify the site (or sites) to search, and select either all or selective searching of content; add the search box and customize the appearance by adding a logo and matching the site's look and feel; finally, you can add refinements (e.g, sectional groupings) to reflect your site's content.
In addition to saving you the cost of adding Google hardware and the associated support costs, the search service provides the benefit of being able to immediately produce results. "This allows small businesses to leverage the fact that their pages have already been indexed," Glotzback said.
When you use an appliance such as the Mini, you must crawl all your Web pages before your site is searchable. Depending how many pages you have, this process can literally take days or even weeks.
Not Free Search, But Darn Close
While the search service isn't free, it's not far from it. "It's an extremely low price point — astonishingly low," said Jim Murphy, research director, knowledge management at AMR Research. "It's for customer-facing sites and ideal for e-commerce and customer service."
Exactly how low is the price? Custom Search Business Edition starts at $100 a year for searching up to 5,000 pages and at $500 for 50,000 pages. For larger volumes of pages, Glotzbach said, businesses will work through Google's enterprise sales group. Google does cite a $15,000 a year fee for up to 1 million pages. "After that, people just aren't comfortable putting it on the credit card," he joked.
Custom Search Business Edition builds on the Google Custom Search Engine, Glotzbach said, and adds business integration features through an XML API, the option to turn off ads, a more customized look and feel, as well as Google Enterprise e-mail and phone support.
With the availability of both search appliances and a search service it is now "a bit confusing in terms how [Google] is offering search for the enterprise. Appliances have been where revenue is, but the company is principally about software as a service," AMR's Murphy said.
However, there is a distinction, Murphy said, in terms of who should use the appliance and who should go with Custom Search Business Edition. "The hosted service is not designed for sites with premium content or that offer subscriptions," Murphy said. "It's also not for companies that have privacy considerations or disaster recovery considerations."
For small e-commerce shops, though, "it's going to be extremely compelling," Murphy said. "It's so easy so set up, In fact, it's a little scary how easy it is. It's hosted by Google and people ask, 'what is it going to do with the information?' Some people aren't comfortable with that. Some people think Google is trying to take over the world."
All companies with Web sites are concerned with search optimization. That is, every business is jockeying for position on Google's search results pages. Google contends there is no connection between Custom Search Business Edition and Google.com search results in Google. "Google says there's no connection, but someone will be asking that question," Murphy said.
Not So Fast, E-Commerce Shops
While the price and ease-of-use are hard to argue with, Forrester's Brown said there is a caveat for e-commerce sites. "You don't have control over when the site will be crawled. If you need control, it's not a good solution for selling online."
That capability to control crawling your Web pages comes into play if, for example, you frequently update your site or add new products to your online catalog on a regular basis. "It's all in the trade-offs," Brown said. "As an administrator you can see how often your site is crawled, but don't have the ability to tune it."
However, he added, the price is so "extremely" low and it's so easy to set up that if you're not concerned about crawling or if you can wait for Google, Custom Search Business Edition is worth trying. "For companies that find they need control, it's a good upsell opportunity to the appliances."
Brown said he isn't concerned about what Google does with information. "Google is already crawling these sites. They already have the data." Privacy is a bigger concern for extranets and intranets, he said.
"Literally millions of Web sites don't have search," Google's Glotzbach said. "People used to spend time navigating a Web site. Now, and I think this is attributable to Google.com, they look for search."
Dan Muse is executive editor of internet.com's Small Business Channel, EarthWeb's Networking Channel and ServerWatch.
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