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The Google OneBox for Enterprise will be a customisable solution built into the search hardware boxes that the company has been selling for the last four years. The software will allow administrators to create organisation-specific searches where employees can use the standard Google interface to search for information such as contacts or calendars and sales or purchase information. In fact the number of possible search categories is unlimited. The software also enables specific categories to be assigned to different members of staff or departments.

'Over time Google has become a gateway for searching for all types of information,' said Dave Girouard, general manager of the company's enterprise business. 'We have been doing this on the consumer side for years.'

Google has worked with several leading enterprise software and hardware companies - including Oracle and Cisco Systems - to attempt to break into a market that is dominated by the likes of Autonomy, Fast Search and IBM. Software licenses generated $75mn for the company in 2005, less than one per cent of its total

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revenue.

'We are certainly much smaller than the mother ship, but we are doubling in size every year and are profitable,' said Girouard. Mothership being the company's core search business.

However, the area is quickly being recognised as a growth segment. Oracle launched its enterprise search solution in March under the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search 10g brand.

For more information go to www.google.com/enterprise/gsa.

The company has also unveiled a new version of its Google Mini hardware designed for small businesses that want to add Google search to websites and networks.

'True to its name, we've made the Mini even smaller, but added many features to make it even more useful for small businesses,' said Girouard. 'For about the price of a PC, companies can make their websites more usable and employees more productive by adding Google search.'

New features include the ability to search across multiple websites and to create an 'almost unlimited number' of document collections and user interfaces. Administrators can choose between automated continuous crawling to maximise 'freshness' and minimise network traffic, or crawling the entire site on a set schedule. The system can also be used to create an instant intranet by directly indexing shared file systems. Performance has also been improved and the new box is about half the size and weight of the original, so that it fits in a rack or under a desk.

Further information can be found at http://mini.google.com.