If you’ve ever wasted time digging through old chats, emails, or outdated documents just to find one piece of information, you’re not alone. This common frustration is exactly why intranet search engines exist, allowing users to find what they need quickly. An intranet search engine is a specialized tool designed to help teams locate and retrieve internal documents, resources, and knowledge stored within a company’s intranet. Unlike public search engines like Google, these tools focus exclusively on internal content, such as policies, project files, employee directories, and other organizational data.
While intranet search engines primarily focus on static content, solutions like Tanka redefine the concept by integrating AI-powered memory and smart messaging features. Though it's not an intranet search engine, Tanka remembers your team’s past conversations and business context, turning disorganized data into valuable information. For fast-moving teams in industries like SaaS or e-commerce, this can be helpful in saving time by reducing repetitive tasks.
What features should you look for when choosing an intranet search engine?
The right intranet search engine can streamline how your team finds and shares information. Here are the key features to consider:
AI-powered search: Natural language processing and personalized results make searches more intuitive and relevant to each user.
Centralized information repository: Choose a tool that stores documents, policies, and resources in one place. This simplifies access and eliminates the need to jump between platforms.
Organized data: Look for automatic tagging, filters, and contextual ranking to help employees find relevant content quickly.
Content management: Your intranet should support multiple content types like documents, FAQs, blogs, and multimedia to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Data security: Ensure role-based access and permissions to protect sensitive data.
Employee engagement: Features like directories, internal messaging, and email lookups help teams stay connected and work efficiently.
Multilingual support: Global teams benefit from language support that makes content accessible across regions.
Tools like Tanka go beyond search by combining AI memory and messaging, functioning like an advanced intranet search engine for a faster, smarter way to access company knowledge.
How is intranet search different from enterprise search?
While both intranet search and enterprise search aim to improve access to information within organizations, they differ significantly in focus, scope, audience, and features.
Intranet search
Focus: Intranet search helps access internal company resources, such as documents, policies, procedures, and employee directories.
Scope: The scope of intranet search is limited to the company’s intranet environment. It doesn’t index external websites, cloud storage, or personal devices.
Audience: This type of search is primarily intended for employees and authorized internal users who need easy access to company-specific information.
Features: Intranet search tools often integrate with other intranet applications and emphasize user-friendly interfaces, personalized experiences, and basic search functionalities to simplify navigation within the intranet.
Enterprise search
Focus: Enterprise search provides a unified search experience across all organizational data sources. It goes beyond the intranet by indexing information from cloud storage, shared drives, databases, CRM systems, and even external websites.
Scope: Its scope is much broader than intranet search, encompassing both structured and unstructured data across various platforms and formats.
Audience: Enterprise search caters to a wider audience that includes employees, management teams, IT professionals, and sometimes external stakeholders like customers or partners.
Features: Advanced features such as federated search, natural language processing (NLP), semantic analysis, and data analytics are common in enterprise search tools. These capabilities enable users to retrieve precise results from vast datasets and gain valuable insights through intelligent algorithms.
Intranet search is ideal for teams seeking a simple solution to navigate their internal network efficiently. On the other hand, enterprise search is better suited for organizations that need comprehensive access to diverse data sources across multiple systems.
Tools like Tanka offer a modern alternative by combining elements of both approaches, providing AI-powered memory and smart messaging alongside internal search capabilities.
Which tools offer a comprehensive set of features to meet your needs? Let's take a look at 5 options
When searching for the right intranet search tool, consider options that align with your team’s needs and offer functionality beyond basic search capabilities.
1. Tanka with AI-powered search capabilities
Tanka combines AI-powered messaging, long-term AI memory, and internal search functionality into one dynamic platform. Unlike traditional intranet search engines, Tanka acts as your team’s living knowledge hub for internal company information. It organizes scattered data and enables real-time collaboration. Whether you're looking for a past conversation, a shared document, or meeting notes, Tanka’s AI can find it and help you act on it.
AI-powered messaging. Tanka improves communication with smart replies and context-aware suggestions, saving time by drafting messages and emails.
Long-term AI memory. It remembers past conversations, shared documents, and other data, ensuring continuity in projects and eliminating repetitive explanations.
Smart reply. It provides instant, context-aware response suggestions for messages, emails, and team chats.
Personalized AI assistant remembers the context of your work and constantly learns from any new threads or documents shared in Team Wiki.
Knowledge management: Features like Team Wiki and Co-Memory allow teams to create shared repositories of information that an AI assistant can learn from and use to deliver relevant responses.
Team Wiki: Tanka’s Team Wiki serves as a shared AI knowledge base that helps you organize and customize it by team, project, or department. Each team member’s AI assistant can learn from the Team Wiki and generate responses based on the shared knowledge.
Co-Memory: This lets you upload project documentation, reports, and other resources to a shared memory space. Everyone in the group can access and contribute to this knowledge, and the AI assistant uses it to deliver more relevant, context-aware responses over time.
Centralized communication hub: It integrates with platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, Gmail, and Outlook. Tanka consolidates team communication into one seamless interface.
Global team support: Real-time translation makes Tanka ideal for teams across different languages and locations.
Project and client tracking: It tracks and stores project updates, client notes, and training materials for easy reference and collaboration.
Data security: With encrypted communication and strict access controls, Tanka ensures that sensitive information remains secure.
Microsoft SharePoint Search
Microsoft SharePoint Search is a tool for organizations using the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It allows users to search and access documents, sites, and data within the ecosystem. It offers advanced filtering and comprehensive indexing, along with integration with Microsoft 365 tools to streamline content discovery across the organization.
Document and data access: Allows users to search for and retrieve documents, sites, and data within SharePoint.
Advanced filtering: Offers filtering options to refine search results based on metadata or file properties.
Integration with Microsoft 365: Works with tools like Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook.
Personalized search results: Uses Microsoft Graph insights to deliver accurate results based on user activity.
Mobile-friendly interface: Ensures accessibility across devices for on-the-go users.
GleanAI
GleanAI is an AI-powered intranet search engine designed to unify information across platforms. It helps employees find critical information stored in various apps and tools, making it easier to locate specific data or documents.
Cross-platform search: Helps gather information stored in multiple sources like apps and tools.
Content organization: Automatically tags and organizes content for easier retrieval.
AI-powered insights: Uses AI to provide search results that are relevant to each user's needs.
User-friendly interface: Simplifies navigation with intuitive design and search functionality.
Slite
Slite is a collaborative note-taking and knowledge management tool ideal for team-based projects. It lets teams create, edit, and share notes in real-time, making collaboration and sharing information easier.
Shared workspaces: Allows teams to create, edit, and share notes in real-time.
Organizational tools: Offers channels, folders, and tagging features to structure content effectively.
Search capabilities: Makes it easy to locate specific notes or topics quickly.
Cross-device access: Supports desktop, web browser, and offline access for flexibility.
Collaboration features: Includes commenting, task assignment, and version tracking for teamwork.
Sinequa
Sinequa is an enterprise-grade AI-powered search platform built for large-scale data environments. It connects to diverse data sources across the organization, including structured and unstructured data, to provide a unified view of all available information.
Unified data access: Connects to diverse data sources across the organization, including structured and unstructured data.
Advanced AI features: Utilizes natural language processing (NLP), semantic search, and machine learning for precise results.
Context-aware search: Delivers relevant insights by understanding user intent and context.
Scalability: Designed to handle complex enterprise needs with high security and reliability standards.
Decision support: Helps organizations make informed decisions by uncovering actionable insights from data.
Comparison table of intranet and enterprise search tools
Criteria
Tanka
Microsoft SharePoint Search
GleanAI
Slite
Sinequa
Ease of integration
Seamlessly integrates with Slack, WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, and more for centralized communication.
Fully integrated with Microsoft 365 tools like Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook.
Connects with multiple platforms to unify search across apps and tools.
Integrates with tools like Confluence, Notion, Canva, and ClickUp.
Offers over 200 connectors to integrate with platforms like Salesforce, Dropbox, and SharePoint.
Search efficiency
AI-powered memory delivers fast, context-aware results for past conversations and documents.
Advanced filtering and metadata tagging improve search accuracy.
AI-driven search provides precise results adapted to user needs.
Simple and intuitive search for team notes and shared documents.
NLP and semantic search deliver relevant, context-aware results from vast data sources.
Scope of data
Focuses on internal communication, shared documents, and project tracking within the team.
Limited to internal SharePoint data but covers documents, sites, and directories.
Searches across multiple platforms for both structured and unstructured data.
Focused on team knowledge bases and collaborative notes.
Covers all enterprise data sources, including structured/unstructured data across formats.
AI capabilities
AI memory adapts over time; supports smart replies and co-memory for shared knowledge spaces.
Basic AI features like relevance ranking via Microsoft Graph insights.
Leverages AI for tagging, organization, and context-aware search results.
Limited AI capabilities; focuses more on collaboration than advanced AI-driven insights.
Advanced NLP, machine learning, semantic analysis, and context-aware insights for decision-making.
User interface
Simple interface that's easy for teams to use with little learning required.
Difficult interface that’s hard to use without IT support or training.
User-friendly design simplifies navigation and search processes.
Minimalist UI/UX with a WYSIWYG editor for easy note creation and organization.
Intuitive interface optimized for large-scale enterprise use with advanced filtering options.
Collaboration features
Combines messaging with project tracking, shared wikis, and real-time translation for global teams.
Limited collaboration features; focuses more on document management than teamwork tools.
Basic collaboration features; primarily a search tool rather than a collaborative platform.
Strong collaboration tools like shared workspaces, commenting, task assignments, and versioning.
Limited direct collaboration features; focuses on improving individual productivity via insights.
Security
Encrypted communication with strict access controls for sensitive information protection.
Role-based access controls ensure secure document sharing within an organization.
Offers strong security measures.
SOC 2 Type II certified with secure team access through identity providers like Google or Okta.
High-level security with encrypted data access and compliance with enterprise standards.
Conclusion
The right intranet search engine depends on your team’s specific needs, workflows, and priorities. Each tool offers unique strengths, making them suitable for different scenarios.
Microsoft SharePoint Search is ideal for organizations deeply integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. GleanAI stands out for its ability to unify information across multiple platforms and deliver AI-powered insights that improve employee efficiency. It’s a strong choice for teams seeking advanced tagging and organization but may require significant setup and training.
Slite is perfect for smaller teams focused on collaboration and knowledge sharing. Its simplicity and intuitive interface make it a great tool for creating and organizing shared notes, although it lacks advanced AI features.
Sinequa is designed for large enterprises handling vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. Its powerful AI capabilities make it ideal for industries like finance or healthcare but may be complex to implement and maintain.
Among these options, Tanka offers a modern solution that goes beyond traditional intranet search tools. By combining AI-powered messaging, long-term memory, and centralized communication, Tanka serves as both a dynamic knowledge hub and a collaborative platform.
Unlock smarter intranet searches with Tanka—try it now!
