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Google Search Appliance (discontinued) vs. Island

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AThe Google Search Appliance provided document indexing. The product was discontinued in favor of Google's cloud-based options.N/A

    Island

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AIsland is an Enterprise Browser platform. Island also gives organizations control, visibility, and governance over security and search.N/A
    Pricing
    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)Island
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)Island
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)Island
    Small Businesses
    Elasticsearch
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Elasticsearch
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Algolia
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Algolia
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Algolia
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Algolia
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)Island
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Search Appliance (discontinued)Island
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    The Google Search Appliance is well suited to most site search needs and it is possible to customize the front end seen by website visitors to produce a satisfactory basic interface with basic branding applied to it. However, in some situations it may be necessary to instead make API calls from a web page to retrieve search results and the format in which those results are returned might be a little more difficult to work with.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    The only reason I didn't gave the maximum rating is because it's not cheap, if you have a smaller company you can use some plugins instead depending on what you need. But I completely understand it's not safer than the Island browser. However, it would be great to have a simpler version for small companies too, that wouldn't require much testing to setup. Besides that, Island is my first choice when thinking about safety for remote workers.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Homes in on key searches.
    • Immediate response.
    • Simple UI, very user-friendly.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    • The agent can still see the customer's data that they need to help the customers, but without the ability to screenshot, copy and download outside the Island browser, that also prevent data leaks
    • The organization also saves money without the need of hiring only local employees, people can download it on their personal desktops
    • Can replace setups with VPN that are expensive or virtual desktops
    • Blocks unsafe websites that can also copy the client and customer data
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • It's my understanding that Google is ending support for the appliance soon. This is obviously an important consideration.
    • The administrator interface is far from easy to use.
    • There is a significant learning curve for new users.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    • Sometimes the advisors may experience some glitches to copy and paste the information they need even if they're still inside the Island browser
    • Sometimes some apps don't behave exactly the same and they would in other browsers
    • It takes some time to setup it accordingly with what the company needs and it requires some tests
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Island
    It requires some training but it's very easy to use, as it's much like other famous browsers and it behave just as them. Even if it needs to be set up, you can set different policies for different users, that can be quite useful for bigger companies. However, some employees can feel a bit restricted as it has it's limitations to download or copy and paste
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Neutral rating because I've never needed support.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Google search has always been superior. No other search engine application can even come close.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    Chrome Remote Desktop is a good option to access the company desktop remotely, but it doesn't reduce the costs of the company since you'll still need to have two machines for it to work, you'll also need the same amount of IT staff and mantain a physical address. It can be a good option to companies that have only few agents remote but it's not good for hybrid or remote only employees
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • The GSA was not cheap. At all.
    • There has also been a cost associated with our need to switch to another site search solution in the near future, due to Google ending support for the sppliance.
    • That said, we have so much support content that we owed it to our customers to offer a comprehensive search tool to help them find the most relevant content - and of course Google are the masters of this. However, it's worth noting that the alogorithms used on the GSA are far older than those used on google.com.
    Incentivized
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    Island
    • There is some costs to training people to use Island, and also to test and setup the browser, if you're initiating a business, this should be considered
    • Some advisors may not have a compatible hardware, this can add to the migration costs
    • No need to have a physical address or servers, since everything is managed from the clould it can significantly lower the costs
    • You can reduce the IT staff and maintenance costs too
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots