The focus on search issues at present is good to see. For too long the quality of search implementations on both web sites and on intranets has been pretty terrible, and finding good examples is not easy. The search vendors do not help by not making the best use of their own technology - at least I assume they are using their own technology!

The Gilbane Group has recently started a new practice area on enterprise search, including a blog written by Lynda Moulton. To date there are only two entries, so it is far to early to start evaluating the blog. Instead I will just congratulate Frank Gilbane and his colleagues on starting up this practice area.

There is not a great deal of competition. Sue Feldman does great work at IDC but this is for clients only. New Idea Engineering are also very active in the enterprise search sector, with a newsletter that is always worth reading. Raytion is a search consulting company based in Dusseldorf but the latest news on the corporate web site dates back to 2005. The company is still in business. Then there is the Goebel Group, for which Dave Goebel writes the SearchMax blog. But for me the doyen of search analysts remains Steve Arnold, who understands both the technology and the business of enterprise search and has written the definitive report on the subject for CMSWatch.

Martin White