Two months after making its own search technology a commodity, Microsoft raised the ante today in the enterprise search space by going out and buying Fast Search & Transfer, an Oslo, Norway-based search software company for $1.2 billion. FAST gives Microsoft a search reach that extends beyond its own platform and application stores, and certainly makes it more competitive with Google in larger enterprises. FAST Two months after making its own search technology a commodity, Microsoft raised the ante today in the enterprise search space by going out and buying Fast Search & Transfer, an Oslo, Norway-based search software company for $1.2 billion.FAST gives Microsoft a search reach that extends beyond its own platform and application stores, and certainly makes it more competitive with Google in larger enterprises. FAST also competes with Google for site-specific Web searches, including large commercial sites like CareerBuilder. According to a Gartner research report last spring, FAST was neck-and-neck with competitor Autonomy for market leadership in the enterprise.FAST has a number of advantages over Google in the enterprise. It has a variety of customized solutions, and its engine can be tweaked and tuned specifically to customer needs. It’s also a favorite of consulting firms. And Mark Bennett (the vice president of enterprise search consulting company New Idea Engineering), ironically compared FAST to Windows when describing how it was different from Autonomy (which he compared to OS X). So, with a single purchase, Microsoft has moved ahead of Google in the high end of enterprise search technology, while it has already made the low end of the search market free. And FAST could conceivably help Microsoft’s own Web search efforts considerably as well. While it won’t stop Google in its tracks, it certainly does make the search market a bit more interesting. Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business