Which is best for you? If you plan to use the search product as an interface to your file servers, instead of using a file explorer, choose a product with good desktop integration, as opposed to a Web interface, or one that provides a powerful API for creating custom search clients. If desktop integration isn't important or you'd rather avoid desktop search clients, go with a Web-based offering.
Once you decide on architecture, choosing a search product is easy, right? The product that gives the best search results is the one you want. Going into this review, our premise was simple: ID the killer algorithm that would give one entry an edge in providing relevant results.
Problem is, we didn't find any killer algorithms. We spent hours running the products over various data sets, but didn't even find much variance with advanced algorithms among the products tested. Where we found the most differentiation: how security is handled and product architecture.
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Google was clearly the odd duck in our lineup, not because its offering lacks features or competitive pricing--in fact, enterprises can thank Google for the price wars that have made search a relative bargain.
