Another trend users will welcome is falling prices. Other vendors that make their search engines available on the Internet can afford to subsidize intranet pricing with advertising on the Web. Some vendors, like Infoseek, however, are experimenting with pricing based on the number of documents indexed. The Delphi Group's Reynolds contends that as search engines get better at pinpointing the right content, the focus will shift to finding ways to make it easier for users to deal with the information. As that item approaches the center, it becomes, literally, the center of attention, and links to associated documents come into view.
Autonomy takes a slightly different approach by providing a visual map of the results of a search.
Autonomy builds up a profile of the interests and expertise of individuals in the company, based on their past searches, which then becomes part of the general corporate body of knowledge. As visual mapping and other advanced technologies become widely available over the next year or so, the storm clouds hovering over intranet searching should begin to fade. Changes in the industry will make searching your company's intranet a whole lot easier. Dan Orzech is a Philadelphia, Penn.-based writer who specializes in technology. His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times , The Philadelphia Inquirer , and many computer industry publications.