Microsoft Fast Want a Search Health Check
October 28, 2008
Obscured by the roll out of Azure, the Microsoft cloud made it hard to spot a new survey. A happy quack to a savvy reader in the UK for this information. If you did not get an invitation to this “The Health of Enterprise Search”, click here, and you ca participate. The survey engine is Zoomerang’s or Market Tools. I did not want to spend much time figuring out whom Microsoft Fast hired for this important data collection effort. I was more interested in the 11th questions which asks about vendors and then provides no guidance to the survey participant.
The invitation says,
Search has come a long way over the past 10 years, and many organizations are now using Search to improve customer experience, drive innovation, manage risk, reduce costs, build communities and share intelligence. We would like to hear your opinions on the Health of Enterprise Search and its impact on business performance by asking you to complete this 12 question on-line survey.
I would agree. In a decade Fast Search & Transfer dumped its advertising and Web indexing business, leaving the field clear for Google. Fast Search then asserted that it would become the world’s leader in enterprise search. Autonomy objected and turned in financial reports that made clear that Fast Search was not the only dog in the kennel. By 2007, Google outperformed Fast Search and, based on my data, surpassed Autonomy as well. Fast Search had a lousy 2007 and sold out to Microsoft in April 2008. In October 2008, Microsoft Fast started one day with several Norwegians with police authority. The police gathered up “evidence” of alleged wrong doing. Yes, it’s been an eventful decade.
Sometime in 2006 I concluded that enterprise search was dead. And, if not dead, enterprise search was not in the best of condition. Now, two years later, Microsoft Fast is doing a search health check. I find this remarkable.
Stephen Arnold, October 28, 2008
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