Paula Hane's monthly article, "Enterprise Search Is Hot," looks at the growing number of companies and new product offerings in the space. She also details some of the ways that ITI is trying to help you solve your enterprise search dilemmas and decipher how these technologies can help your organization. Read Paula’s article for details on our new Web-based evaluation tool "Enterprise Search Center;" our first event devoted to the subject, Enterprise Search Summit; and an upcoming search white paper.

Thanks to all of those who attended and exhibited at Computers in Libraries in March. Conference attendance was up by nearly 10 percent, with librarians and information professionals from all over the country and the world represented.

In addition to Enterprise Search Summit in May, we have three other conferences taking place in the next 6 weeks. Buying & Selling eContent will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona,  from April 25 to 27. If you are interested in attending, please be sure to register by the end of the day tomorrow to take advantage of our early-bird registration discount (http://www.buy-sell-econtent.com). Also, please see the "Conference Connection" section of this newsletter for information on our two other spring events: WebSearch University and Streaming Media East. 

If you have any comments or suggestions on any special content you would like to see covered or on how to improve this newsletter and the information held in it, please let us know at newslink@infotoday.com.

Best Wishes,
Tom Hogan, Jr.

Press releases continue to flood my e-mail in box, announcing all manner of news and products: from database launches and enhancements, company strategies and financials, and Web search engines. Despite the volume, I couldn’t help but notice the recent buzz of activity from companies launching new and improved enterprise search products. Seeing the words "enterprise search" repeated in one announcement after another signals a hot trend to me. Just in the last 6 months, I’ve covered product news from Endeca, Copernic, Northern Light, FAST, Verity, EasyAsk, and Inxight—and news from Open Text arrived as I was writing this article.

Finding information that’s located in internal and external data repositories is one of the major challenges of today’s business organizations. This has led to a growing popularity in the marketplace for products addressing these needs. Most of the newer enterprise products do much more than just provide keyword searching. The clear trend is to integrate entity extraction, linguistic technologies, taxonomies, and classification with sophisticated search technologies to offer users better search results with less work. 

At last fall’s KMWorld & Intranets conference, more than half of the knowledge management exhibitors identified themselves as being in the "search, taxonomy, and classification" markets. With so many products available—and improvements coming along all the time—evaluating and choosing the best products for particular information needs has become an important and complex mission. To aid in the task, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has announced several initiatives designed to put information into the hands of corporate decision makers: a new conference, an enterprise search demonstration site, and a commissioned white paper.

Enterprise Search Summit
A brand new event, the Enterprise Search Summit, is scheduled for May 11 to 12 in New York. According to Nancy Garman, Information Today, Inc.’s director of conference program planning, ITI designed Enterprise Search Summit specifically for IT managers, information and knowledge architects, content managers, and Web publishers and developers who are tasked with implementing site-search functions within their organizations. Over the course of 2 days, conference attendees will learn from expert instructors and industry analysts about how to select and implement enterprise search applications and how to mesh search with information architecture and content management systems. 

Along with tutorials and demos, the Enterprise Search Showcase will feature tabletop displays and demonstrations by enterprise search software and solutions vendors. Enterprise Search Summit is produced by ITI in conjunction with the following industry-leading companies as premium sponsors: Inxight Software, Convera, Fast Search & Transfer, Endeca, Northern Light, Open Text, Google, and Verity, Inc. To view the complete program or to register for this new conference, go to http://www.enterprisesearchsummit.com. 

Enterprise Search Center
In advance of the May summit, attendees and any others interested in enterprise search are invited to test-drive a number of leading technology solutions by visiting a unique search implementation on the ITI sites—sites that are rich with information about content management, search engines, and related technologies. The new Enterprise Search Center (ESC) is due to launch on Monday, April 5 (at http://www.enterprisesearchcenter.com), and will be available for use throughout 2004.

By invitation, participating vendors of enterprise search solutions have set their crawlers loose on the following Web sites, all owned and operated by Information Today, Inc.: EContent Magazine, KMWorld, Destination CRM, eMedia Live, Streaming Media, The Cyberskeptic’s Guide, and Intranets. Users searching the ESC will see how each engine performed against the same content collection. Since these sites operate on a variety of platforms, users will also be able to see how the engines coped with distributed and independent systems, not unlike those found in many enterprises. Those who try the ESC are asked to register and then complete a short questionnaire after their test-drive. 

The first three companies participating in the ESC are Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com), Synomia (http://www.synomia.com), and Entopia (http://www.entopia.com). 

Northern Light’s products include the brand new Northern Light Enterprise Search Engine, SinglePoint Custom Market Research Portals, as well as technology-licensing and custom enterprise search services. Northern Light can search databases of up to 25 million documents with a single software installation on a single server. Its automatic classification provides Custom Search Folders for results navigation.

Synomia’s enterprise applications rely on automated linguistic analysis—a patented process—and are available remotely: no installations, no maintenance. Synomia automatically organizes content thematically to provide visitors with an intuitive and immediate access to the information sought. Synomia’s technology has been developed jointly with France’s state-run CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

Entopia’s semantic, contextual, and user-activity-based search capabilities provide "only truly relevant results." Entopia’s enterprise search solution provides personalized results, a people-finding function, tight integration into business processes, and handling of a variety of structured and unstructured content types, repositories, and applications.

White Paper
A new white paper, titled "Search, Classification, and Taxonomy," is due in May and will be distributed at the Enterprise Search Summit. It will also be included in the July issue of EContent and the July/August issue of Information Today. The editorial director for the white paper is Andy Moore, chair for the "KMWorld Best Practices White Papers" and the "EContent Leadership" series. Moore oversees editorial content, conducts market research, and writes the opening essays for each of the white papers. 

Commenting on the remarkable response from the enterprise search industry, Moore said: "The IT industry in general might be still coming out of the doldrums, but don’t tell these search guys. They are aggressively developing product, gaining market share, and innovating in mind-boggling ways." 

He added: "The most interesting aspect for me about the search industry is the confirmation that the market ecosystem still supports specialized start-up companies that are based on good technology and good ideas. If that trend continues, the future looks bright."

Companies participating in the white paper include Atomz Corp., Convera, Dialog, EasyAsk, Ektron, Entopia, Entrieva, Google, Inmagic, Interwoven, iPhrase Technologies, Thomson Scientific, and Verity.

So if one of your assignments is developing or implementing an internal search function, check out some of these new information rich offerings. Happy searching!

Paula J. Hane is Information Today, Inc.’s news bureau chief and editor of NewsBreaks. Her e-mail address is phane@infotoday.com.

NewsBreaks for Monday, March 29, 2004

GlobalSpec Introduces “The Engineering Web” 
By Paula J. Hane 

GlobalSpec, a specialized online resource for engineering, has launched a new interface, added more powerful search functionality, and has introduced a specialized search engine it is calling “The Engineering Web,” which it says provides “engineering context and relevancy” and access to hidden Web resources. The newly introduced engine searches more than 100,000 engineering and technical Web sites and provides searching of specialized content the company says is not available on any other search engine—application notes, patents, material properties, and standards. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb040329-1.shtml 

Thomson Derwent Provides a First View on Patents 
By Nancy Lambert 

The Thomson Derwent World Patents Index is a major resource for international patent searching by subject, especially in chemical areas. But users who need information on newly published or granted patents and patent applications can find Derwent frustrating because of the time lags in getting records into the database. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb040329-2.shtml 

NewsBreaks Weekly News Digest 

Education Department Awards Contract for New ERIC 
The U.S. Dept. of Education has awarded a 5-year, $34.6 million contract to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) of Rockville, Md., along with its subcontractors, to develop and operate a new database system for ERIC. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd040329.shtml 

Vanderbilt Television News Archive to Be Digitized 
More than 30,000 videotaped hours of television news programming will be preserved digitally through a grant awarded to the Vanderbilt Television News Archive  by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Vanderbilt University officials announced that they had been notified that the grant for $281,154 had been approved. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd040329.shtml 

ISI ResearchSoft Upgrades Reference Manager
Thomson ISI ResearchSoft has shipped a major upgrade to Reference Manager, its bibliographic software that streamlines research, writing, and publishing for corporate, government, and academic researchers. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd040329.shtml 
 

INFORMATION TODAY
The Inevitable and the Optimal
By Richard Poynder

On March 1, the U.K. Parliament's Science and Technology Select Committee held the first oral hearings in its inquiry into scientific publishing. Announced in December, the stated aim of the inquiry is to establish "what measures are being taken in government, the publishing industry, and academic institutions to ensure that researchers, teachers, and students have access to the publications they need in order to carry out their work effectively."
--> https://www.infotoday.com/it/apr04/poynder.shtml

ONLINE Magazine
Making Money as an Aggregator
By George Plosker

When confronted with the history of online, what surprises people the most is its longevity—the online news and magazine aggregator business has been around for approximately 30 years. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/online/mar04/plosker.shtml

COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
How Homeland Security Affects Spatial Information
By Linda Zellmer

A recent article in SecurityFocus described the fact that several U.S. government buildings in Washington, D.C., could no longer be clearly seen by people using MapQuest's aerial photo database. This is an example of spatial information that was rendered unavailable after Sept. 11, 2001. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr04/zellmer.shtml

SEARCHER Magazine
Online Before the Internet, Part 6: Mead Data Central and the Genesis of Nexis
By Susanne Bjorner & Stephanie C. Ardito

In the January 2004 Searcher, Richard (Dick) Giering spoke about his early military and Data Corporation experiences in developing full-text retrieval technology. We pick up Mr. Giering's story in 1968, when Data Corporation was acquired by Mead Corporation, as our interview with Richard Giering continues.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr04/ardito_bjorner.shtml

MULTIMEDIA & INTERNET@SCHOOLS
A Look At ... Web-Based Assessment 
by Charles G. Doe

It seems like everything is becoming "Web-based"—i.e., available on the Internet—and for good reason. As connections and speed improve, the Internet's flexibility, accessibility, potential capacity for paper reduction, potential for superior data collection, analysis, and reporting capacities, and potential reduction in costs make it very attractive. 
--> https://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/mar04/doe.shtml
 

LINK-UP DIGITAL
When It Pays to Pay for Research
by Reid Goldsborough

There comes a time when one asks even of Yahoo!, even of Google, Is this all?  Yahoo! and Google do an admirable job of categorizing the Internet and making its contents more accessible. But ultimately they're search tools, not research tools.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/linkup/lud040104-goldsborough.shtml
 

CONFERENCE REPORT/UPDATE

Buying & Selling eContent 2004
April 25-27, 2004, Scottsdale, AZ
Buying & Selling eContent is where the leaders of the content industry gather to network and learn the latest in industry trends and issues. To register or find out more go to www.buy-sell-econtent.com. 

WebSearch University
May 10-11, 2004, New York City
Attend WebSearch University, to update your search tactics and skills with the completely updated curriculum and course content for 2004. Get more information at www.websearchu.com. 

Enterprise Search Summit
May 11-12, 2004, New York City
Enterprise Search Summit is a 2-day intensive conference where information managers learn how to plan for, search, and deploy an internal search capability. Find out more at www.enterprisesearchsummit.com.

Streaming Media East
May 11-12, 2004, New York City
Streaming Media East is the premier learning, networking, and problem-solving event for streaming media professionals, technology experts, and business executives. Find out more at www.streamingmedia.com/east. 
 

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

APRIL 2004

April 1-4 
NATIONAL SCIENCE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION (NSTA), Atlanta, GA 
Contact:  http://www.nsta.org 

April 7-10
ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES (ACRL), Minneapolis, MN
Contact: http://www.ala.org/acrl

April 19-20
SEARCH ENGINE MEETING 2004, The Hague, Netherlands (Crown Plaza Promenade)
Contact: http://www.infonortics.com 

April 28-May 2
ANNUAL ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS (AIIP) CONFERENCE, Austin, TX
Contact: http://www.aiip.org/Conference/2003/index.html

For the complete Conference Calendar visit https://www.infotoday.com/calendar.shtml

As commercial software products for Competitive Intelligence (CI) have begun to emerge and gain acceptance, potential users find themselves overly dependent on information supplied by the software makers. Reviews and surveys are published from time to time, but CI is not a "one-size-fits-all" process and the software that supports it must be highly customized. This new book is the first to propose a systematic method firms can use to evaluate CI software independently, allowing them to compare features, identify strengths and weaknesses, and invest in products that meet their unique needs. Authors Bouthillier and Shearer demonstrate their 32-step methodology through an evaluation of four of the most popular CI software packages. In addition, they identify important sources of information about CI software, map information needs to intelligence outcomes, and describe key analytical techniques.

2003/211 pp/hardbound
ISBN 1-57387-173-7
Regular Price: $39.95 
Sale Price: $31.60* 

*For the month of April only, Information Today, Inc. is offering a 20 percent discount on this title. Click on this link and order the book online to receive the sale price of $31.60.

http://store.yahoo.com/infotoday//ascominsof.html

KMWorld Newslinks: http://www.kmworld.com/newslinks
EContent Xtra: http://www.econtentmag.com/ecxtra 
EMedia Xtra: http://www.emedialive.com/Newsletters/Default.aspx 
CRM Weekly: http://www.destinationcrm.com/newsletter/
 
 

This newsletter is published by Information Today, Inc.
Editor in Chief: Tom Hogan, Jr. 
Managing Editor: Kate Donahue
143 Old Marlton Pike
Medford, NJ 08055
Phone: (609) 654-6266 Fax: (609) 654-4309 
Web site: https://www.infotoday.com/default.shtml
E-mail: newslink@infotoday.com