MARLBORO, MASS. — September 23, 2004 — EasyAsk, a trusted provider of search and information retrieval solutions, today announced the availability of version 9.2 of EasyAsk Enterprise 9, EasyAsk's flagship search and information retrieval solution. EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 was selected as a winner of the Computerworld Innovative Technology Awards and was also a recent finalist for the MITX Tech Awards. Enterprise 9.2 provides new features tailored for today's enterprise environments such as federated search and support for the JSR 168 standard for interoperability between portlets and portals. B2B/B2C eCommerce functionality has been extended to include search engine optimization and tighter integration with leading Web analytics engines. Version 9.2 includes a new intuitive user interface (UI) for the administrative workbench for even greater usability. Other features include the ability to import existing third-party taxonomies, enabling enterprises to leverage existing investments, accelerate implementation and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Today's commerce and enterprise environments are a mix of heterogeneous systems and applications that are often incompatible or not well integrated. In its continued drive to provide an efficient single point of access to key commerce and business intelligence data, regardless of location or format, EasyAsk introduces the industry's first, truly federated search capability. This capability in turn, creates high value for end user customers whether EasyAsk is the sole search engine or when it shares that responsibility with one or more different engines.
"We see customers increasingly asking for federation capability, especially as they try to improve the customer experience across distribution channels or merge suppliers' product information into their customer support experience, " stated Sue Aldrich, senior vice president of Patricia Seybold Group. "EasyAsk can invoke searches by Google, Inktomi, Verity, Microsoft Index Server, and others. It is unique in supporting federated search, being able to both generate the query string used to invoke another vendor's search and merge the results that are returned with a relevancy rating. This is a key strength of and a key differentiator for EasyAsk."
EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 supports the Java Community Process (JCP) JSR 168 standard that enables interoperability between portlets and portals. Now, EasyAsk portlets can be easily deployed to any specialized portal or multi-portal environment, extending the EasyAsk search and navigation solution without the expense and time of integration efforts for multiple platforms. EasyAsk's JSR 168 support has already been demonstrated in implementations with the IBM WebSphere Portal Server. EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 has achieved the Ready for IBM WebSphere Portal designation, an advanced level of integration with the WebSphere platform.
Enterprise 9.2 includes a feature that improves the exposure of search results to web search engines — such as Google — to maximize rankings.
Another eCommerce enhancement includes stronger integration with the leading web analytics engines to provide a deeper understanding of the full lifecycle of a customer interaction. By providing greater insight into cross-sell, up-sell and other merchandising functionality that already exists, EasyAsk is able to increase the overall value of its customers' Web analytics investments.
"EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 does not represent simply incremental enhancements; it is a major step forward in the evolution of enterprise search," stated Bob Alperin, president and CEO of EasyAsk. "The approach we have taken is unique among all other competitors in the enterprise search segment and addresses the myriad of problems associated with requiring that all users understand where the data or content they need is stored as well as the techniques for querying such sources. The long-held technique of forcing enterprises to physically consolidate data and content centrally to enable a proprietary index to be built to support information retrieval has proven to be a flawed approach. EasyAsk is the first and only vendor to deliver a breakthrough solution that penetrates the barriers of knowing where to look and how to ask.
"We have listened to and worked with our enterprise and eCommerce customers to develop Enterprise 9.2, which promises to add significant value to their businesses," stated Alperin. "Recognizing our customers' changing search needs that were brought on by shifting technological and societal trends, we have added functionality that keeps our customers at the forefront of their markets. We will continue to work closely with our customers to ensure that EasyAsk search and navigation remains a competitive differentiator for them."
EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 also adds a number of features to extend and enhance administration. This includes the addition of a new Administration Workbench with enhancements drawn directly from the real-world experiences of the customers on EasyAsk's Product Advisory Council. The new Workbench UI is intuitive and easy to use, requiring less training for broader use across an enterprise, supporting the expansion of search out into the enterprise. At the same time, Enterprise 9.2 adds a role-based security model that makes the right administrative components available to the right users. Additional key enhancements in EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 include:
Search relevancy enhancements: Advanced tools for tuning search relevancy for both structured data and unstructured content, including easy definition and weighting of searchable fields and scoring of words based upon frequency of use.
Third-party taxonomy importation: Enterprise 9.2 reads existing taxonomies, dramatically speeding implementations and leveraging existing investments and training. Additionally, through the enhanced Administration Workbench, enterprises can easily modify as they wish.
Availability
EasyAsk Enterprise 9.2 is available immediately. For more information, please visit www.easyask.com
About EasyAsk
EasyAsk delivers search and information retrieval solutions that help organizations requiring scaleable, secure, single point access to critical business information and insight, drive sustainable competitive advantage and rewarding customer experiences. Powered by a deep linguistic capability, EasyAsk's Synchronized Search and Navigation™ platform accesses both structured and unstructured data, intelligently interpreting users' queries to find fast, accurate and complete results. Over 100 industry leading brands including retail, financial services, high technology and manufacturing companies such as Lands' End, The Gap, E-Loan and Forbes.com rely on EasyAsk for increased effectiveness of their B2C or B2B cross-channel eCommerce efforts. Leading investors include Sigma Partners and Flagship Ventures. EasyAsk is headquartered near Boston with sales and support offices throughout the U.S., and Europe. For more information, please visit our website at www.easyask.com or contact us at 1-800-425-8200.