CNET article "Google Names Enterprise Search Clients" mentions the decoupling of internet search from enterprise search. One of the comments at the end of the article bothered me.

"Google is the only (company) left playing in both markets. Long term, we believe if you're going to be successful in enterprise search you have to know how consumers search,'' said Berk, who noted that Google is also marketing its product as easier and cheaper to use than those offered by competitors.

I actually believe that internet searching is very different from enterprise searching. Just like searching your local library's catalog system is not the same as searching a research database or Google. I'm wondering if Google really believes they can survive the enterprise search sphere where many have already acknowledged that it's a different market. I was actually having lunch with Avi(www.searchtools.com) a few weeks ago and discussed this same trend of internet search companies separating from their enterprise search siblings...if anything this will probably put more money into research and development rather than two siblings fighting for attention of management and money. Not only are the content areas different, but the motivations for searching, domain/scope of content, and you don't necessarily have inlinking among documents. This is definitely another interest I'll be monitoring over the next few months.