FAST Search has made some recent announcements which indicate that its focus will increasingly be on the enterprise and middle-range site search market.

Recently-announced FAST PartnerSite is a site search product which competes with companies like Google, Atomz, and Searchbutton for the business of small- to mid-sized web sites. Priced at $100 per month, the service offers key side benefits: daily re-indexing, and guaranteed site spidering and placement of all pages in the FAST whole web index, which powers several portal partners including AlltheWeb and Lycos Search. The upshot is: the product is a bit more expensive than some of the low-end and free options on the marketplace, but very competitive with middle-priced products such as those offered by Google and Atomz. And the guaranteed inclusion in the Lycos index can be considered a plus.

According to Stephen Baker, FAST's PartnerSite Product Manager, webmasters should appreciate the "super scalability" of the search product along with the benefits of 24-hour refresh and guaranteed inclusion in the whole web database.

FAST is also targeting the high end e-commerce sites that require site search capability, recently renewing an agreement to power IBM.com in 25 languages (FAST can work in 46 languages). According to Tom Wilde, FAST's VP of Marketing and Channels, consumers are today undergoing a transition from surfing to task-driven online sessions. In this context, site search capability is essential. Global 2000 companies have special requirements and are less price-sensitive than others. "They aren't going to write a blank check," says Wilde. "But they are primarily concerned about whether you can meet their functionality requirements."

Those who have watched the search engine scene will know that FAST has always focused on technical robustness and scalability. It truly does search an enormous database of URL's quickly - with its enormous index of the entire Internet offering a showcase of this capability. Its algorithms for determining page relevance may be less cutting edge, but this issue should not be as apparent when searching a company web site as opposed to the 'net as a whole. At least one large customer, IBM.com, has decided that the combination of features and price for the FAST site search product is a good fit for them.