Companies pick up Google appliance

Little more than four months after Google launched its search appliance for enterprises, the company on Monday announced several major customers, including Boeing, Cisco Systems, PBS.org and National Semiconductor. Introduced in early February, the Google Search Appliance combines hardware--in the shape of a thin, yellow box--and software that mirrors Google's Web search technology for corporate intranets and Web servers. Chipmaker National Semiconductor, for example, uses the technology for its internal systems, giving staff the ability to search corporate data. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, which also licenses a hosted search navigation system for corporations' public Web sites, introduced the appliance to give companies greater security from the benefits of placing it behind a corporate firewall. --Stefanie Olsen, Special to ZDNet News