Introducing Google Mini

The Google Mini is a smaller version of the Google OneBox appliance, as shown in Figure 38.2. It’s still fast and powerful. It’s very easy to administer. Turn it on, point it at your data, put a search box in the Google Toolbar for Enterprise or on an internal or even public Web page, and you’re done.

Figure 38.2: Use the Google Mini when you have fewer documents and no databases to index.

Google Mini can crawl through documents on your public Web server, your intranet Web site, and corporate file systems, and can recognize more than 200 file types.

Google Mini features

The administrative interface is simple. Using the Web interface, you specify where in your enterprise the documents reside using URLs. Because the Mini does not have document-level security like the OneBox Search Appliance, you need to control access to certain sensitive data by keeping the Mini from crawling into certain directories. You can run more than one Mini in your organization and allow different levels of access to sensitive information.

The Mini crawls through your data and organizes the information into collections. You can tell the Mini to crawl continuously through your data, regularly updating the index. It automatically senses and crawls dynamic data more often than static data (data that does not change very often, or ever.)

There is a graphic interface for creating the look of your result pages. Using this interface, you can customize the user experience when searching your business data. You also can use the advanced interface for further customization.

The Mini has a keymatch feature that lets you assign particular pages or documents to certain keywords. In this way, you can assure that searches such as “annual report” get right to the correct documents.

You also can assist the user searching your system by defining your own synonyms. When a user begins typing a particular keyword into the search box, your recommended synonyms are shown as suggestions.

Like the OneBox Search Appliance, the Google Mini also has reports that help you better manage your device and access to your company data. Find out what the top queries have been and see error reports that tell you when there are problems accessing your data.

Selecting a Mini

The Mini has versions starting at its minimum capability of 50,000 documents. There are different versions in incremental document-handling capabilities. The next levels are 100,000, 200,000, and 300,000. When you need to handle more than 300,000 documents or you need access to enterprise applications and databases, you need the OneBox Search Appliance.

Choosing between OneBox and Mini

Your business needs and budget likely will help you choose which search appliance you need in your company. Table 38.1 shows you some of the advantages that the Google Search Appliance has over the Mini. Basically, if you need to search through large numbers of documents, business applications, and databases, then save your pennies for the Search Appliance because the Mini just doesn’t have that kind of horsepower.

Table 38.1: Search Appliance versus Mini
Open table as spreadsheet

Feature Description	Google Mini	Google Search Appliance
Document capability	300,000 maximum	30 million maximum
Secure content access control through permissions	No	Yes
Integration with enterprise applications	No	Yes
Relational database query support	No	Yes
External metadata indexing	No	Yes
Device SNMP monitoring	No	Yes
Supports RAID disks	No	Yes
Clustered redundancy	No	Yes

Google Enterprise Partner Program

Enterprises large enough to need search appliances like either the OneBox for Enterprise or Google Mini also may need expert assistance in installation, integration, custom support, training, and custom programming expertise. The Google Enterprise Partner Program is a group of third-party companies that provide these services. A directory of the current partners and the services they offer can be found at www.google.com/enterprise/gep/directory.html.

You also can become a partner by applying at www.google.com/enterprise/gep/overview.html.

Note 

You may notice in the overview document that there is a sizeable membership fee for participating as a partner in the Google Enterprise Partner Program.

Google Enterprise Blog

The subtitle of the Google Enterprise Blog is: A blog about enterprise information, search, and the users that live there. If this sounds like you, then definitely join the blog found at http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/.

This blog has information about administration and using all the Google Search Appliance hardware and software tools.