This IDC study discusses the search and retrieval market, which in 2005 has broadened to include a spectrum of tools that provide access to information. Now renamed the content access tools market to reflect this broader scope, applications in this group have often moved away from pure search toward a broader offering that is either a platform providing access to both content and structured data or a specialized application that attacks a specific business problem. This five-year forecast describes the trends that have driven market growth, and discusses the short- and long-term strategies that vendors may want to consider as the market changes radically over the next five years.
"Growth in this market has been remarkable — 23% in 2004," said Susan Feldman, IDC's VP for Content Technologies. "Based on our recent market research and models, IDC fully expects the rate of growth to increase for the next two years."