BERKELEY, CALIF. - Recommind is raising the bar on how documents on Web sites or corporate networks are found, categorized and filtered with this week's release of MindServer 2.0.
MindServer's search-and-retrieval engine is designed to distinguish the context of how a word with multiple meanings is used in a given result with the goal of providing more accurate returns with fewer superfluous listings.
For instance, searching on the word "Java" could bring back results regarding the programming language, coffee or the island. MindServer will sort the results based on the major themes it finds in the pages being returned, allowing users to drill down and better define what they're looking for. Adding "violence" to the search query would limit the returns to just those results pertaining to Java Island, rather than coffee and the programming language.
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"We treat the information management problem as one thing, not separating it into search, taxonomy, categorization and recommendation," says Recommind CEO Bob Tennant.
Tennant says MindServer can be set up to remember individual user queries to help better tailor future search results to that user's need. If the person is always searching on "programming," then a search on Java will more than likely relate to the computer language rather than the island nation. Results can also be tailored by a person's department when searching an intranet for a given document or file.
Also, users can have their own categories for returning data rather than utilizing the product's auto-categorization feature. The basic MindServer dictionary can be enhanced with field-specific terminology. For an installation currently underway at the National Library of Medicine, for example, Recommind "goosed" MindServer with a medical thesaurus, Tennant says.
The core MindServer engine suns on Solaris, Windows 2000 and Linux and contains an optimized database for storing its index. A Java front end is used to access the system. Documents can be stored in a database or in a standard file system.
Pricing for MindServer 2.0 starts around $150,000.
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