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Corporate desktops using IBM's OmniFind to sift through business data will get a boost as Big Blue integrates Google's desktop product technology.

Local desktop searches and probing corporate databases will be a simpler task for IBM business customers. Reuters reported how IBM will collaborate with search engine leader Google on an initiative to combine their technologies.

"Getting these two products together makes sense for both of us," David Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business unit, said in the report. "If you want to have a good corporate search product, you have to have desktop search."

Getting IBM's imprimatur endorses Google to the Fortune 500 even beyond what Google has accomplished in seven years. Google's search has become a de facto tool used worldwide, so much that the company name is now used to generally describe searching online.

IBM quashed any wild speculation by noting the arrangement with Google isn't part of any "grand strategy" in the report. Instead, IBM appears to be embracing the web as a service even more so, and will reportedly make a bigger push into "information as a service."

That evokes the kind of access to IBM that developers enjoy with Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft's MSN to an extent. Those three big Internet players have made various APIs available for outside developers to craft applications linking back to the likes of Google Maps, Yahoo Stores or MSN Search.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.