How easy/expensive is it to adopt Google Mini/Google Appliance for intranet search?

Solution 1:

I don't have first-hand experience, but there are some reviews which I try to summarize.

Pros

• Very simple installation. It takes about 15 minutes to set up. It comes with a dedicated network configuration port and an administrative Web interface.
• Good security architecture; LDAP configuration, SSL settings, certificate authorities, SNMP configuration, etc.; it does not cache security credentials and instead checks credentials before committing to a search (if you require integration with other security systems / single sign-on systems, consider the Google Search Appliance.)
• Up to 220 different file types can be inspected, including Microsoft Office documents and PDF files as well as ordinary HTML pages.
• Content groups for multiple types of users with access to their data collections
• Good (relevant) search results
• Configuration of suggested synonyms
• Comes with Google Analytics

Cons

• Configuring Windows network shares is not as easy as it should be
• Limited integration options for enterprise requirements
• Price: (This is arguable, since you get the hardware plus support) starting from 2,990 US$ for 50,000 documents up to 9,990 US$ for 300,000 documents
• The server is extraordinarily loud, so it is only suited if you have a dedicated (server) room

Here is a complete feature list: http://www.google.com/enterprise/search/mini_features.html. And here a good review on campustechnology.com.

Solution 2:

How big is your intranet? As an alternative you could try the free MS Search Server Express which we use on our intranet (2000 employees). There are some docs on the web comparing the two.