Inktomi Corp yesterday announced what it claims is the first customizable, automated web directory search engine. Unlike a normal keyword search engine, directory-based searches enable users to find information by drilling down into category groups, such as cars, restaurants or theaters and pulling off data only relevant to that particular field. Up until now, companies like Yahoo! have offered directory searches but typically it takes hundreds of editors to go through the web and find all the relevant sites to put under each category. And the process takes years, says Paul Gaultier, Inktomi’s CTO.
What’s different about Inktomi’s product is that it automates that process by using a supercomputer to go out across the web and search for relevant links for each category. So rather than use hundreds of editors, Inktomi only needed ten, Gaultier said. The editors took two months drawing up the list of around 5,000 different categories and within each group they selected a handful of web links. Using technology that Inktomi calls Concept Induction and which took its scientists two years to develop, Gaultier said the supercomputer looks at the examples within each category and uses human intelligence concepts modeling to search across the web for similar matches for each group. The resulting product has over 1.3 million linked pages and Gaultier said that will expand with future versions of the product. There probably won’t be an end point, he said.
In addition, the new directory engine enables portal sites to blend in their own unique content and/or create as many new directories as they see fit, using a special Java tool with a drag and drop user interface. It will also seamlessly integrate with Inktomi’s other portal products, namely its search engine and on-line shopping software. Although the software was only officially launched yesterday, Inktomi is already boasting a number of customer wins including VerticalNet, GoTo.com, GoNow.com, GoProfit.com and Knight Ridder Real Cities.
