Google Targets Small Biz with 'Mini'

Google unveiled late Wednesday the "Mini," a scaled down hardware version of its search technology. The company hopes that small businesses will purchase the unit in order to search their public Web sites and allow employees to better traverse internal networks.

Carrying a price tag of $5,000 USD, the slimmed down Mini has less bells and whistles than its larger counterpart, the Google Search Appliance, which can cost anywhere from $32,000 to $500,000 USD. For example, the mini can only search 50,000 documents, whereas the Search Appliance can search 15 million.

The Google Mini indexes 220 different file types and boasts an easy installation that takes just few hours.

"We believe high-quality search makes business faster and more efficient, and that companies of any size can realize these benefits," said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business. "Whether it's an employee finding the information she needs to do a better job or a customer connecting with the right product or service, Google search can improve productivity, increase revenues and reduce costs."

Alongside news of the Mini, Google also announced it had enhanced the original Search Appliance, which can now search structured data in databases from Oracle and IBM.