Gartners Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology is out! Thanks to the acquisition of FAST Search and Transfer; Microsoft is leading the pack for the first time. Autonomy has slipped to the second place. Google is still in the challegers zone.

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The 1.2 billion dollar purchase of "FAST Search and Transfer ASA" will form a strategic base for Microsoft in the enterpsire search domain.

Fast offers Microsoft high-end enterprise search technology, complementing Microsoft's existing enterprise search tools aimed at the lower end of the market, including its Search Server products. Microsoft has said that it plans to integrate Fast's technology with SharePoint, the enterprise collaboration software product.