It said the enhancement means that users are able to further customize and personalize their searches to quickly and easily find, access, and capitalize on information stored inside organizations and across the web.

The new version offers the ability to separate content into different searchable document collections, an improved administration console that simplifies set-up and management of the search tool, and enhanced search support based on the latest open source Lucerne indexing library.

Other enhancements improve the performance, indexing and custom search field capabilities, as well as support for additional browsers.

IBM introduced IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition last December to address the growing need for a no-cost, full-featured search product that eliminated financial and technology barriers to information access.

Since its launch, about 25,000 users have downloaded it, and IBM said global organizations of all sizes are using it to improve their enterprise search experience. In addition, it said numerous ISVs and businesses have developed new offerings that integrate with or support IBM’s free search platform.

In a recent Computer Business Review interview, Google head of enterprise and applications, Dave Girouard, said the company has about 10,000 customers of its Google Search Appliance. This is also aimed at offering search capabilities to business users seeking information from within their own business data as well as the internet. One obvious difference from IBM and Yahoo’s offering is that the Google Search Appliance is not free.

Last year, IBM and Yahoo came together to change the rules of enterprise search, defining a new market standard for search as a core capability that should be ubiquitous and free, said Joff Redfern, senior director of product management, Yahoo! Search Distribution. We’re committed to helping enterprises – both large and small – get more value out of their information quickly and inexpensively, and providing them with an on-ramp to leveraging the power of all their information.