Google Search Appliance (discontinued) vs. IBM Watson Content Analytics

The Google Search Appliance is well suited to most site search needs and it is possible to customize the front end seen by website visitors to produce a satisfactory basic interface with basic branding applied to it. However, in some situations it may be necessary to instead make API calls from a web page to retrieve search results and the format in which those results are returned might be a little more difficult to work with.

Incentivized

IBM Content Analytics is well suited for organizations with the resources to invest a significant amount of energy in an advanced analytics engine. The software improved the productivity of analysts and programmers. The software is not suitable for companies that just want Excel-type analyses or that lack the capabilities of doing advanced analytics.

Incentivized

• Homes in on key searches.
• Immediate response.
• Simple UI, very user-friendly.

Incentivized

• Impressive and efficient indexing system.
• Rarely does the indexing have issues that need to rebuild/reindex.
• Searches are almost instantaneous and end users can move on to the next task.

Incentivized

• It's my understanding that Google is ending support for the appliance soon. This is obviously an important consideration.
• The administrator interface is far from easy to use.
• There is a significant learning curve for new users.

Incentivized

• It would be better if its available for cross platforms.
• Pricing could be adjusted better.
• More number of third party add-ons required.

Incentivized

Neutral rating because I've never needed support.

Incentivized

Google search has always been superior. No other search engine application can even come close.

Incentivized

Perhaps the biggest advantage of IBM Watson Content Analytics is the IBM feel. I think IBM puts lots of resources into developing products that even sociologists can use. It's so easy, that to professionals wanting customized analysis, it might be kind of offensive. The drawback is that Content Analytics is not as fast as its competitors.

Incentivized

• The GSA was not cheap. At all.
• There has also been a cost associated with our need to switch to another site search solution in the near future, due to Google ending support for the sppliance.
• That said, we have so much support content that we owed it to our customers to offer a comprehensive search tool to help them find the most relevant content - and of course Google are the masters of this. However, it's worth noting that the alogorithms used on the GSA are far older than those used on google.com.

Incentivized

• Organized, easy to produce search results.
• Never lose a document again.

Incentivized