X1 is a Windows-based rich desktop search client that enhances search productivity by building in near real-time an indexed database of every word and every document on PCs, which it updates several times a day. The software supports over 400 file types including relational databases, document repositories, and email systems like Notes and Exchange.
According to the company’s web site: X1 can locate and index your old files and email messages as fast as they’re created or received. Officials at Pasadena, California-based X1 refer to this quick background indexing capability as find-as-you-type searching. The integration is tight enough to allow X1 users to access WebSphere Information Integrator for the desktop and invoke, change or delete content within the X1search window.
IBM is certainly ramping up its activities in search. In parallel with the release of its UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) text analysis and enterprise search integration framework, the company also rolled out OmniFind Edition 8.2.2, a concept-based search platform built around a runtime processing engine that creates and manages multiple text analytic processes driven by various annotators.
X1 is striking similar deals with other influential players to fend off the likes of Google and Microsoft which are also developing competitive desktop-based search tools. Last December, X1 licensed its technology to Yahoo! Inc to help the portal giant get its own free desktop search offering off the ground. And in January this year, internet service provider Earthlink Inc added X1-enabled search capabilities to its native email application.
IBM said the OmniFind-X1 integration will be available in September.
