PALO ALTO: Google has signed in eight customers for its enterprise search appliance that was launched in early 2002 and has since been somewhat shrouded in mystery.

The Mountain View, California-based company, seen by many in financial circles as an ideal candidate for an initial public offering, said Pfizer Inc., the U.S. Army and the city of San Diego are among the new paying users of its enterprise search appliance. The company's other publicly announced customers are Xerox Corp., Hitachi Data Systems, Nextel Communications Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Discovery Communications.

Google's search appliance is a hardware and software product that helps companies and organizations search for products and information within corporate Intranets and Web sites. Privately held Google did not release revenues or exact customer counts for its search appliance.

The company's long-awaited announcement of several high-profile search appliance users "is public confirmation that they are in fact committed to the (enterprise) space," said Jupiter Research analyst Matthew Berk. Analysts called Google's move contrary, given that the search sector has undergone a major decoupling over the last 12 months.

Inktomi Corp., a formerly high-flying search technology company, sold its consumer Web-search business to Yahoo Inc. and its enterprise search business to Verity Inc.

Ask Jeeves Inc., a key Google Internet search rival, sold its enterprise search business to Kanisa Inc. Future Yahoo merger partner Overture Services Inc. bought search provider AltaVista. Overture kept AltaVista's consumer search business but sold its enterprise business to Norway's Fast Search & Transfer.

"Google is the only (company) left playing in both markets. Long-term, we believe if you're going to be successful in enterprise search you have to know how consumers search," said Berk, who noted that Google is also marketing its product as easier and cheaper to use than those offered by competitors.

(C)Reuters

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