Yahoo! and IBM offer free enterprise search

Yahoo! and IBM have teamed up to deliver a free enterprise search application for SME’s.

The IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition will apply IBM’s search technology but use an interface from Yahoo!.

The aim is to undercut products from rival companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, by delivering it for free to companies unwilling or unable to spend $30,000 on IBM’s high-end Omnifind software.

The new product may not be so powerful, but Yahoo is almost certainly hoping to leverage the software to help get more search and enterprise users into Yahoo!, especially as the product aims to link to Yahoo! online resources.

Just how effective the strategy may be remains to be seen, though.