The Disruptive Power of Search

Search for it. It's a simple but powerful vision for
world domination.

Everyone needs information. And the primary gateway to
that is Search.

In the early days of the Web, we used Altavista and Lycos.
Over the years, Google became the best search engine on the planet. It instantly
found what we looked for. It got to be the first port of call for every Web
user. It became a common noun: google for it.

Search is the new kid on the desktop. What surprises me is
how long it took. Sure, Microsoft goofed up: in two decades, it couldn't
provide usable search. Vista, likely to be launched this month, finally brings
fast, indexed desktop search. But why didn't anyone else take it up?

Google did (rather late), and I can instantly search my
desktop for documents, pictures, email, old Web pages...even hazy memories.
Google desktop search comes up with two taps of the Control key, and instantly
shows results as I begin to type.

Now imagine being able to scan your network and instantly
find a document, the latest version of a presentation, an email, or a piece of
data.

Enterprise search is in its early days, despite over 30
vendors: from Microsoft (Sharepoint), IBM, SAP and Oracle to Hummingbird and
Autonomy, with a range of software and hardware (such as Google's Mini
appliance).

Search is not the top application on the CIO's list. But it
should be on the CEO's. For all the vital documents that are buried on the
corporate network; for all the missed opportunities when employees or customers
can't find the product, support or sales information.

So powerful is the draw of Search that Google has become a
parallel media alternative. News? Google for it. Of course, Google picks up the
news from media sites, but it's still the first port of call. And so it can
sell more ads. The media doesn't like it-Google gets ad revenue from their
content-but they don't want to block Google's search, which brings readers
to their site.

Google is disrupting more than media: software delivery,
content aggregation, advertising, auctions... It's the next Information
Platform, says IDC of the 'Google Effect'.

Google may not be a true competitor yet to Microsoft or
Oracle, but will "follow the path of a true disrupter: an incomplete but
quickly evolving-and, for much of the market, a 'good enough'-option in
the information world".

I believe that just as the Internet and the World Wide Web
would be a lot less useful without Google, in the year ahead, Search is going to
make the network a lot more useful for the Enterprise, and make its information
available to every manager and employee.