Google boasts nearly 50 partners as the company prepares for a year of pushing the envelope with its enterprise search technology.Since launching its enterprise partner program in September, Google has added more than 40 new collaborators.
The program, built on symbiotic solutions, now stands at nearly 50 partners (Google was reluctant to reveal the actual number as new partners are added weekly, according to a spokesman) and the company is preparing for a blitz of innovation based on Google's search engine technology married to enterprise developers solutions.
The ultimate goal, said David Girouard, Google's general manager of enterprise, is to make "every bit of information on the enterprise network accessible in a single search box."
"Today people think of search as a way to sort through documents," Girouard said.
"We think every bit of information that is on your network should be available through a single search box. We're doing a lot of work in that area and I would expect to see some major announcements in that area toward the end of the year."
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Google's program remains simple—one week of training on Google business practices and technology. It relies heavily on an innovative spirit and collaboration to build new uses for Google's search technology, Girouard said.
The arrangement is exemplified by Google's recently announced venture with Yakabod, a solution provider that helps business departments and teams manage how they collaborate using Web applications.
"[Google] is focused on bringing search into the enterprise and [solution providers] like us have the software that makes it useful," said Scott Ryser, Yakabod's CEO.
"Our knowledge with the Google engine underneath is extending Google into things they couldn't do otherwise."
Using Google's search engine technology with Yakabod's solution on top, the pair have developed a solution that allows groups to share work product (word documents, spreadsheets, reports, etc.) as well as their thoughts (in the form of blogs) on a secure Web-based application. The Google engine delivers relevant searches of that work product.
"It gets the knowledge off desktops and out of people's heads," is how Scott Ryser, Yakabod's Chief Executive Officer, describes the solution.
Yakabod already sold one unit and expects to find interest among its U.S. intelligence agency clients.
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