One answer is to embed a common "sticky" note to applications and documents that would let people label these with a few keywords. That would make it easier to retrieve the files down the road. Application makers such as Adobe Systems and OS makers such as Microsoft are in a prime position to develop such tools.
Another approach, now under development by Microsoft, is to create intelligent documents with XML (Extensible Markup Language) links. These would enable people to input information into one document and funnel that data to other, relevant applications. Search tools would be built in, so related information could be found in disparate applications.
Autonomy, Convera and Verity are all companies that are working to solve these enterprise search problems and typically offer much more robust technology than Google's enterprise technology. Google's system tends to focus on simplicity and works particularly well with HTML-based documents.
"Google's real challenge will be in adoption: getting people to download and install it," independent analyst Matthew Berk said. "In order to search your hard drive, you need to install something that's pretty intrusive, that can reach deep down into your machine."
