3.2.4 Enterprise Search Engine market: Consumer behavior

The Enterprise search engine market has a different configuration that the commercial one. However the main protagonists such as Google and Microsoft are still present. (Kehoe, M. (2009). 2009 Overview of the Enterprise Search Market.) In opposite to the commercial web search engines, enterprise search engine users are mostly disappointed by their search experience.

Enterprise search satisfaction

It is quite impressive to see that almost the majority (49%) have a negative image about searching for information within their enterprise search tools.

The major reasons for this are:

– The lack of training and consulting of those search tools within organizations; (cf. The Association for Enterprise and Content Management. (2008). Findability: The Art and Science of Making Content Easy to Find.)

– The expectation to have results which are as pertinent as commercial web search engines;

Influence of the consumer web on enterprise search tools

A vast majority (82%) agree to say that their consumer web experience on how to look for information on the Internet influence their expectations regarding the implementation of such technology within companies.

As Ron Miller (cited in the following study) explained it: « On the web, search engines like Google have the advantage of searching the entire web. Therefore, the likelihood of finding query matches is much greater than in the enterprise where the number of possible right answers is much smaller, and could in fact be found in just a single document. (Of course finding more results doesn’t necessarily mean finding right ones, but that’s another issue altogether.) »

It is then not surprising to see that most of enterprise search engines are not successful in finding what they are looking for:

Success rate of finding the information with enterprise search tools

The problematic according to Ron Miller should then be as follow: "I don‟t think the technology is failing us, I think it‟s the way we are using the technologies," but he adds, "If I can’t find my content, it doesn’t exist." (Miller, R. (2009). Unlock Power Enterprise Search.)
This part clearly put in relevancy that searchers within companies are confusing commercial search engines with enterprise search engines associating directly one to the other. It shows as well the lack of training to those technologies and confirm then the lack of technology literacy of Internet users.
Moreover it clearly define what the market is: simple and easy to use applications.