Live by free software, die by free software.  That’s the message IBM and Yahoo just delivered to Google with a new free, entry-level, enterprise search application that undercuts one of the few things for which Google actually charges money. The Google Mini, an appliance loaded with Google search software starts at $1,995 for 50,000 documents and handles up to 300,000 documents in its $8,995 edition. 

The IBM/Yahoo free software, called IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition, (catchy name) was designed to be simple to install and use, and can index up to 500,000 documents from more than 200 file types, like PDFs and Word and Excel.

The IBM/Yahoo product has a browser-based interface that looks and feels like the Yahoo search engine, which is familiar to many people.  The product’s search box can be embedded in an existing webpage, or an IT department can build its own custom interface via an API.

While IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition doesn’t threaten more powerful mid-range products like the Google Search Appliance, or high-end systems like Fast Search & Transfer, Autonomy, or IBM’s own fee-based OmniFind Enterprise Edition and OmniFind Discovery Edition, it will almost certainly force Google to re-think the low end of the enterprise search market.