Google sells the Search Appliance as a hardware box bundled with enterprise search software designed to let companies index and retrieve data stored in their corporate systems, such as databases, applications, document management tools, Web servers and files. The upgraded Version 6.0 of the GSA software is depends on technology the company uses in its Web search engines, including Google.com.

In an enterprise search market historically dominated by sophisticated products that are expensive and difficult to implement and use, Google in the past has tried to compete with an aggressively priced, low- to mid-range product designed to be simple to install, maintain and use.