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Google OneBox Hooks up With Enterprise Apps 77

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the google-urban-sprawl dept.
TopShelf writes "Google's OneBox for Enterprise has now been integrated to multiple top-notch business applications, including Oracle, SAS, Cognos, and Salesforce.com, according to this morning's press release on Yahoo! News. PHB's everywhere will soon be able to Google their way to the information they need - what will that mean for corporate report developers and business intelligence staff?"
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Google OneBox Hooks up With Enterprise Apps More

Google OneBox Hooks up With Enterprise Apps

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  • What is this? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What is this google thing that keeps getting mentioned everywhere, and why should i care?

  • How long til MS blocks this? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheLinuxSRC ( 683475 ) <slashdot AT pagewash DOT com> on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:42PM (#15160366) Homepage
    "With Google OneBox for Enterprise, corporate information -- such as contact and calendar info, HR benefits, sales leads, or purchase order status -- is now instantly searchable through a Google search box as part of the Google Search Appliance."

    I assume that in order to access this sort of information, Google is searching through the stores on an Exchange server. I have not heard of any deals w/MS regarding the connector used to connect to Exchange thus I assume it is something Google has either written or had written for them. My question is, how long is it until MS "updates" Exchange under the guise of security or what have you in order to "F'n kill Google" (and their appliance)?

    Just a thought.

    • Re:How long til MS blocks this? (Score:4, Funny)

      by scolby ( 838499 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:58PM (#15160477) Journal
      The article failed to mention another important feature of the googlebox...it was in Beta for several years while Google ensured that its case was completely resistant to flying chairs.
    • All of those pieces of information (calendar, contacts, sales leads) are stored in the Salesforce.com database, which is a development partner for this project.

      But you are on to something, which is unless you have the connectors, this this is worse than useless.
      • if they wanted to connect to exchange youc an jsut use exlodb

        it is decently documented and functions well (abit slow with bad querys)

        and i doubt that they would change the speck on it as it has been the same sence exchange 2k came out and if they did they would distroy way more than jsut google's tool. In fact i know many places that would rather change their network and handel security issues them selves than to install something that would screw up exlodb stuff, mainly because well it is a pain in the as

    • You incorrectly assume that MS updates their products...

      Even a 'critical flaw' like allowing Google to access Exchange will take nine months and three KB articles before it will be 'fixed'...

    • There are tons of 3rd party API's for connecting to MS Exchange. In the Java space alone, there is J-integra, compoze, com to java bridge (alphaworks, ez jcom) - and that was just from quick googling (my first Google result from a simple search was http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=60 8 074&messageID=4032674 [sun.com] )

      Exchange has been around for a while, frankly, it seems like a no-brainer to "talk" to exchange from a non-MS app!

    • I would think that Microsoft would have to be *very* careful if they tried to modify the APIs that google were using

      Just imagine that the API's that were changed include ones used by some of the major backup software for live exchange backups (basically needing to read all the information), or the parts of the APIs used by Virus Scanner vendors

      Given the possible side effects, and that there are a lot of other applications using exchange APIs / connectors, it would be extremely difficult to do without seri

  • My Precious (Score:5, Funny)

    by PineHall ( 206441 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:43PM (#15160374)
    OneBox to search them all;
    OneBox to find them;
    OneBox to bring them all,
    and under Google bind them.

  • What will it mean? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Badgerman ( 19207 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:44PM (#15160384)
    what will that mean for corporate report developers and business intelligence staff?"

    More to do and more to play with - if it even gets much adaption.

    Report development is not something you can substitute easily for with a search system like this. In complex reports it's both art and science. Such searches may make reports easier to GET.

    Intelligence staff - someone has to gather, write up, and analyze the data. This isn't going away either. Besides, to be cynical, if a PHB is looking for intelligence, it'll have to be provided by someone else.

    So - at best a neat new way to find stuff people are already doing.

  • As with the public web... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:45PM (#15160389) Homepage Journal
    ...I expect deployment of such a capable search appliance to unmask all kinds of security loopholes within current corporate intranets.

    From experience, a lot of employee data in HR/Payroll/Health systems is poorly managed, and currently "secure" only under a thin veneer of obscurity. The widely disparate database systems usually used by various groups (some developed inhouse, others contracted in) serve to make it more difficult for potential "information seekers" to access poorly managed systems.

    If this highly capable appliance makes Intranet searches as simple, widely accessible and effective as Google on the public Internet, we can expect to see all kinds of security/privacy problems cropping up on intranets, which were hidden uptil now.

    • Right on. And even sadder then the evidence of such a lack of security that this uncovers will be the cries of "It's all Google's fault. This appliance is a major security risk!". Just like with Google Desktop.
    • On Intranets maybe, but not via the database.

      Personally Oneboxes didn't sell well before, and I don't think that this will help the sell that much more. So IMO this will have little or no effect. Report Designers will continue to make their complex reports, and business intelligence folks will continue to analyze business and sale trends as they did before.

  • Security's shot in the arm (Score:4, Funny)

    by 955301 ( 209856 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:52PM (#15160446) Journal

    I was alway of the opinion that if managers in larger corporations had more effective intranet indexes they would be excreting masonry objects from their posterior orifices. Development teams and internal projects publish a lot of intersting and sensitive stuff - test data sets with real customer information, log's with ssn's embedded in them, project contact and role information that any wardriver would love to have.

    I bet the infosec departments are about to pop some champaigne corks over this one...
    • Well, to borrow words from Data...

      I guess these PHBs adn their devs will be awake late "igniting the late night combustible petroleum products"... trying to rectify the security through obscurity thingy...

  • Means nothing for corporate report producers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joshsnow ( 551754 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @04:53PM (#15160450) Journal
    PHB's everywhere will soon be able to Google their way to the information they need - what will that mean for corporate report developers and business intelligence staff?

    Unless the information is formatted (sorted, ordered, grouped, linked) and organised (styled) the way a business report usually is, the answer to the question is "Absolutely Nothing".

    There is a reason why, for the most part, the interface to website searches is not SQL based, and corporate reports don't rely on text searches.

    I suspect (not having RTFA) this box is about the providing the ability to perform Ad hoc queries against all sources of corporate data (word, excel, PDF, SQL databases/datasources etc) that data first having been spidered by a mini google in the box.

    Also, this probably isn't just about providing "PHBs" this ability. Ordinary people within an organisation often need to be able to search for docs, emails etc based on a piece of text - which is possible with things like Microsofts Index Server, but probably Index Server (or whatever it is these days) isn't as efficient as a dedicated googlebox is.
    • We're pretty unhappy about the Microsoft search built into IIS, which we've used for years. We got a Google test box last year and were reasonably happy with it, though the database-integration wasn't that great.

      This seems to fix this. For example, if someone types in a name, we can create a custom web page that talks to the search, sending back the matches from our employee directory. It does seem to take a bit of work to build each link into your databases, but it's probably worthwhile for the big o
    • It's probably the file type and the METAdata that Google's appliance is using. If it can build a sophisticated set of indexes and cross-reference material across departments a company and disciplines in an industry, then that would go a looong way toward making a lot of things possible.

      Even the "vaunted US Navy" has multiple descriptive terms for ONE piece of equipment, and in the supply and maintenance lines, one engineering department on ONE ship of the SAME CLASS might have separate terms for a faulty ci

  • What does it mean to YOU and ME? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mythosaz ( 572040 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @05:03PM (#15160508)
    It means WE have to produce more documentation - in all sorts of stupid templated forms.

  • google appliance (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SolusSD ( 680489 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @05:07PM (#15160531) Homepage
    the company i work for bought one of these.. its sitting upstairs gathering dust. The fact is, unless your a larger company indexing all the documents you have on your local intranet isn't necessary, not to mention most smaller companies keep companty documents located in smb shares or on file servers and not on the intranet accessible via http, which, afaik, is a requirement for the google box to index the files.

    • Re:google appliance (Score:4, Informative)

      by truthsearch ( 249536 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @05:28PM (#15160677) Homepage Journal
      most smaller companies keep companty documents located in smb shares or on file servers and not on the intranet accessible via http, which, afaik, is a requirement for the google box to index the files.

      Nope. Put in smb:// into the setup to index your file shares. Put in http:/// [http] into the setup to index web pages. The appliance has always been able to search word docs and such on your file shares. It's the integration into Oracle apps and other "enterprise systems" that's new.

    • Re:google appliance (Score:2, Informative)

      by Amouth ( 879122 )
      Personaly for our small company i just took a computer that didn't have a large load - put google desktop on it and DNKA tools http://dnka.com/ [dnka.com] - i am jsut testing it out right now but am quite happey with it
    • and that is why some Google competitors (see my sig, I participated in development of this product) made it a big deal from the beginning to be able to search anywhere - file shares, databases, FTP sites, CD backups, whatever.
  • The default password to all your data is now "goole0wnsU"...

    I see ScuttleMonkey has a nasty infection, good luck with that ;)

    All MY records are on paper, cause my doctors are old.

  • HR benefits, sales leads, or purchase order status

    //wets pants

  • Love It (Score:5, Informative)

    by wolff000 ( 447340 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @05:15PM (#15160597)
    I recently deployed the small google box in my organization and it works great. I no longer have to dig for files because somebody in accounting doesn't remember where they saved a file. It makes my job easier and leaves me more time to play City of Heroes at work. Thank you Google!
  • Ironically enough the link is to Yahoo...
  • To learn more about Google OneBox for Enterprise and see a Google Video of what executives at some of these companies have to say about it, please go to http://www.google.com/enterprise/onebox [google.com].

    Google
    Error


    Not Found
    The requested URL /enterprise/gsa/onebox.html was not found on this server.

  • Google is fast becoming the "killer app". And of course Microsoft has a lot to be worried about. But not just Microsoft, virtually every single other software house should be concerned as well, including many that the OSS world "likes". Google may very well become the next "extend and embrace" monster... Sure they have very smart people working for them. And they are working for them, it's not a collectively run commune or something. I believe the warm fuzzy Google will soon fade away...
  • This is just Google finally doing what Other [autonomy.com] Enterprise Search [isys-search.com] vendors [copernic.com] have been doing for years.

    Any worthwhile enterprise search has been able to search across multiple data types and sources long before this "news" by Google.

    -i
  • All your base are belong to OneBox.

  • Be Careful With All That Power! (Score:5, Funny)

    by oni ( 41625 ) on Wednesday April 19, 2006 @06:01PM (#15160852) Homepage
    With the google search appliance, you're supposed to point it at your company's intranet, then it starts indexing the pages it finds and gives you a web page (let's call this "google search appliance web page") from which you do your searches.

    That's the way it's supposed to work. But if you want to, you can point the google search appliance at google.com, and have it index that.

    Then you go to google.com and give it the address of the "google search appliance web page" so that google starting indexing *your* appliance.

    And that is guaranteed to tear a whole in the fabric of spacetime, ending the universe as we know it.
  • Yahoo is reporting on Google's success? Did Yahoo realize that the way to win readers is to talk good about the crowd's favorite? Or did they hide a secret message in their article, like "oohay esu"?
  • The "one box" is the part on some Google results where you get the News (like searching for "italian election"), or the Calculator ("500 mph in km/h"), or the Image results (can't think of a good one) etc, on the top, before the search results, because they're likely what you're looking for.

    This announcement looks to be the integration of some relevant services (and possibly your own - I didn't watch the video, and the weblog post is mum on details) into the search appliance Google has been offering for qui
  • The next time you miss a memo concerning new cover sheets for TPS reports, you can simply google it!
  • what will that mean for corporate report developers and business intelligence staff?

    Well, at a guess I'd say yet another round of "rightsizing".
  • Think Flickr pictures of Salesforce.com contacts overlayed on a Yahoo Map. Disclaimer: I work for Salesforce.com.
  • You ever been e-mailed with a message to e-mail to someone else with no changes?

    Yeah, they will run the searches and print out the results in a pretty format. Same as always.

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