Search engine vendors Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, Fast Search & Transfer, Google, and Mondosoft, among others just did a little dance for joy. Why? As you've doubtless heard, Microsoft has delayed the release of Vista, as well as its next-generation Office suite and much-needed server-side rebuilds. Microsoft today has no single enterprise search system that can perform what customers with SharePoint, Exchange, and other Microsoft bits and pieces want to do: find disparate emails and documents. Microsoft is, in effect, leaving the 2006 enterprise search market to other systems that can work in the crazy-quilt frameworks of Microsoft products. Had Redmond hit its 2006 ship dates, it might have had a chance to slow the recent surge of third-party search systems. Both Fast Search and Google should be able to step in to help Microsoft-dependent organizations solve their "findability" problems. Smaller vendors like Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, and Mondosoft reported strong gains in 2005. Microsoft's inability to get its basic product out the door could fuel these companies' growth. Indeed, they could not have asked for a better Chinese New Year's present. For Microsoft, 2006 is the year of the dog.