Listen to users, we are...

We often hear from people when describing their corporate search experience that they want simple... they want easy... they want relevant... they want... well Google. Here in Google Enterprise, we believe that simple is better than complicated. We believe that fast is better than slow. And most of all, we believe that corporate search users are people too, and they don't usually pick up a Ph.D in library sciences before coming into work.

But don't take our word for it, in his report on mental models for search, Jakob Nielsen makes the same point loud and clear. Users expectations for search have been set, they want a search box, a button, and a results list (preferably in that order). And they want the best result to be at the top. To that end, I wanted to share with you some things we think about when building an enterprise search solution.

1. Focus on the user, and all else will follow. - Users are just trying to find something, and they've been spoiled by using Google on the Internet. They are used to typing in a word or two and getting back the right answer. So we don't over complicate the experience, and we give administrators full customization control to tailor the experience to the needs of their users.
   
2. Data silos are bad. - Then why, you ask, are there entire segments of the technology industry focused on creating them? We don't know, but our goal is to break down these walls. Our search team is focused on "effortless reach", that is, the ability to easily reach into any source of information and provide search across it. All from one search box.
   
3. Security is good. - When breaking down artificial barriers, you need to ensure you don't break through real ones. Search must sit "on top of" a company's identity management and access control system, and ensure that users only see in search results documents or data they have access to directly. To that end, we inter operate with basic-auth, NTML, SSO, x509 and SAML-based interfaces.
   

So our focus here in Google Enterprise is going to continue to be on providing a fast, fun, and easy-to-use experience to people everywhere, for search across their corporate network and enterprise information stores.