Although everyone talks about the latest Google Dell software deal, the real battlefront is the war being waged in enterprise search. Google has the clear marketed strength with their search appliances, but Microsoft is also on the scene with their recent purchase of DeepMetrix, which will rival Googles free search software Google Analytics.

Enterprise search is the foot in the door for the engines to make hardware contact with the medium and small business around the US and the world, that are looking for a hardware solution to their search needs. By pairing up with one of the engines to solve their lost document woes, companies are building a much needed relationship that involves both financial and manpower resources to manage. Microsoft has the clear advantage in this area, with most small and medium sized businesses already using their software. Google has the market lead in the search space, making it a solid choice for MIS and IT managers making a decision before their management – BUT as the saying goes, no one ever gets fired for choosing Microsoft.

Enterprise search is the “last mile” in terms of branding for a search engine, showing a dedicated piece of hardware from the engines themselves sitting alongside your companies data. From a marketing perspective – this is the sweet spot search companies want to be in. Whoever wins this fight to the server racks will have the upper hand in contextual ad management and other software and service offerings that are coming down the pipeline later from each engine.

The enterprise search marketshare fight will be the behind the scenes barometer of search engine domination. While market share for direct search, and ad dollars lead the headlines, never forget what goes on behind the scenes…

[tags] enterprise search, search marketing, marketing.fm, search appliance, deepmetrix, google, microsoft [/tags]