[BusinessTeam] another smart search player

Message-ID: <6B75EF096AE0BE428B8CEDEA89C5F63278228A@exchange01.lab49.com> · Tue Sep 19 16:04:33 2000 UTC

New search engine promises real answers

By JASON MESERVE
Network World, 09/18/00 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new breed of search engine companies is looking to
redefine the way we find electronic information by returning answers to
questions rather than a list of possible documents containing answers.

One of the companies helping define the category is AnswerLogic, which
last week introduced its answer engine dubbed AE1. The engine, which will
be initially offered as a hosted service, uses topic-specific lexicons to
categorize information on a Web site. 

AE1 uses a natural-language processor to learn the content of a document
and to understand the meaning of a question entered into its search box.
This allows questions to be asked that do not necessarily contain the same
words that could appear in a correct answer. 

"The benefit of a natural-language approach is that you get performance
superior to regular keyword searches," says Jackie Fenn, a vice president
at Stamford, Conn., market research firm Gartner Group. "You're taken to
the exact location in the document, not just to a document that may
contain an answer." 

AnswerLogic will first target the IT and financial services markets with
the service as well as with future enterprise editions of the software. 

Khera Communications of Rockville, Md., will soon be using AE1 on its
MoreBusiness.com Web site as a virtual small-business advisor, says CEO
Raj Khera. "The [virtual] small-business advisor will be for users that
want specific answers for questions like 'Where do I go for venture
capital funding?'" Khera says. "Getting an answer will be a lot better
than getting the list of documents [from MoreBusiness.com] that could
contain an answer." 

Khera says his company will retain its current site search engine and
compare how the two work together. 

The hosted AE1 service is available for a base price of around $5,000 per
month. During the first quarter of next year, the company will offer a
site license priced between $250,000 and $500,000. 

AnswerLogic: www.answerlogic.com

Luke Flemmer
VP Wireless Business Development
nano
phone: (212) 430-6841
fax:      (212) 430-6374
www.nano.com <http://www.nano.com/> 