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A new version of the Google Search Appliance includes the company's OneBox functionality, which returns particular information requests atop the search results.

Google describes its OneBox features this way:

Google's search technology finds many sources of specialized information. Those that are most relevant to your search are included at the top of your search results. Typical onebox results include news, stock quotes, weather and local websites related to your search.
Dave Girouard, VP, Enterprise for Google, noted in a blog post that "employees already know how to get movie listings, weather forecasts, and flight information through simple Google queries."

OneBox For Enterprise works the same way. But it returns information of a business nature in the OneBox. Girouard cited contact info, sales forecasts, and customer data as samples of information that can be retrieved.

"We launched an initial set of OneBox modules with Oracle, Cognos, SAS and Salesforce.com," said Girouard. Cisco, Employease, and Netsuite were also listed as current OneBox partners.

That gives Google an impressive array of business applications and data it can access. Microsoft and IBM are conspicuous in their absence from the list, but as this is a new release, customer demand for modules that tap products made by those two tech powers may appear in the future.

Girouard rationalizes the new OneBox function as a response to the way people work online. For many Internet users, a search engine tends to be front and center on their desktops. Enterprise intranets don't always make their search service so easily found.

Google thinks corporate types should rethink their view of search and its importance to employee productivity. The quicker one can find necessary information, the faster it can be used for other purposes.

The company also announced the release of a new version of the Google Mini search appliance. They noted it is 25 times faster and half the size of the previous iteration.

Google claimed in a presentation about the Mini that 80 percent of visitors will abandon a website if it has a poor search function. Since users can't help but use what is on their business network, Google feels its appliances like the Mini can improve the experience for employees.

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