Autonomy buys Verity
Saturday, 05 November 2005
Two names we don't cover that often are in the news, as UK based enterprise search giant Autonomy is to buy its US rival Verity in a $500Million deal.
Autonomy founded by Dr. Mike Lynch has pioneered some of the most advanced search software on the planet, except that unlike internet search engines like Google it is designed for enterprise and desktop environments, where links between documents don't necessarily exist, so working out which is the most relevant piece of information in those unstructured environments presents a whole bag of complex issues.
You may also have come across Autonomy unwittingly as the engine inside the highly acclaimed BLINKX desktop search tool.
Dr. Mike Lynch, Autonomy’s group chief executive officer and co-founder, said: "The acquisition will enable us to provide a significantly enhanced product offering to both companies’ clients while continuing to drive innovation in the industry."
I have used Autonomy and Verity in my organisation and both are as bad as each other. First, we had Autonomy, spent 8 months trying to install it and get it to work. When we finally did, no one wanted to use it, it was too complicated.
The kM Manager was replaced and 6 months later we swapped to Verity!!!! What a great idea that turned out to be....that was even worse!!! The sad thing is, we still have it and everyone hates it. We are all concerned about what happens next. Are we going to swap back to Autonomy? As far as I am aware we are still tied into the Verity license for another 12 months!!!! Why we continue to pay for something that no one uses is beyond me, but then again, i'm not management.
This market needs a new player who can deliver what it promises and clean up the mess that the likes of autonomy, verity and Fast leave behind.
Posted by: Jon Stevens | Thursday, 10 November 2005 at 02:59 PM
Jon it would be good if you could leave an actual company URL or email address so we know your comments are authentic. Presuming your comments are authentic I am sorry to hear about those experiences. Enterprise search products can be complicated to setup, but thats often a factor of the complexity of the network environment and applications, or even the ability of the installer.
Posted by: Teddie | Thursday, 10 November 2005 at 04:02 PM