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Q: Start up company with new search engine technology ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: Start up company with new search engine technology
Category: Computers > Internet
Asked by: fuego-ga
List Price: $50.00
Posted: 31 Aug 2005 11:54 PDT
Expires: 30 Sep 2005 11:54 PDT
Question ID: 562736
I'm looking for the name of a san franciso based start up company that
has created a new revolutionary search enginge technology.  This
company along with another company signed a deal with China Netcom to
use this technology on their network.  Apparently a version of this
was used by Scotland yard to catch the london bombers and is known as
Holmes 11.  There was an article about this start-up company in
Information Week. Australasian Science calls it 'the world's most
powerful search engine'. It is part of a program code named IDOL.
What is the name of this start up company and what is the company that
it's partnered with that is helping them develope this technology? 
How may I profit from these companies?

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 31 Aug 2005 12:07 PDT
Hello fuego-ga,

I'd be glad to research this question for you, to see what information
can be found on the companies you aksed about.

However, I doubt I would be able to offer much meaningful information
regarding your last question, about how to profit from these
companies.  Google Answers is not an investment advice service.  If
the companies are public, you can, of course, purchase stock.

If they are private, then you may be out of luck, unless you happen to
have a few spare millions to offer up as a venture capitalist.

Let me know if I should research the companies for you, even in the
absence of any concrete "how to profit" information.

Thanks,

pafalafa-ga

Clarification of Question by fuego-ga on 31 Aug 2005 13:20 PDT
Please complete the research absent the "how to profit information". Thanks
Answer  
Subject: Re: Start up company with new search engine technology
Answered By: pafalafa-ga on 31 Aug 2005 16:11 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
fuego-ga,

Thanks for giving me the go-ahead on this.

The key company you asked about is called Autonomy, and operates with
dual headquarters, out of San Francisco and London.

Autonomy is a publicly-traded company, trading as "AU" on the London
Stock Exchange.  Autonomy, at one time, also offered shares through
NASDAQ, but this listing has since been terminated, as the company
decided to focus its listing on a single exchange.

Still, you may be able to invest directly in the company by buying
shares on the London exchange.


Autonomy's home page is here:


http://www.autonomy.com



I've included below some key experpts from their site that describe
their business activities and partnerships:





http://www.autonomy.com/content/Autonomy/

Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU.) is the leading provider of
enterprise software that enables organizations to automatically
understand and harness information that is critical to their business.
Enterprises of all sizes can automatically unify, manage and utilize
the information stored on their systems and within the workforce to
deliver competitive advantages such as reduced business cycles,
accelerated productivity, and an increase in revenue.

This is achieved through Autonomy's ability to fully automate the
processing of any type of unstructured information, ie. text, audio
and video which, until now, has required manual intervention.

Autonomy is widely recognized as the market leader with best of breed
technology by analysts such as Gartner Group, Forrester Research and
Delphi and has benefited more than 1,000 global companies in both the
public and private sectors. Global customers include Ford, Reuters,
Deutsche Bank, BAE Systems, Sun Microsystems and public sector
agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and the U.K.
Houses of Parliament.




Information on their IDOL technology is available at several links, especially:


http://www.autonomy.com/content/Technology/

Technology Introduction
Autonomy is founded on a unique combination of technologies borne out
of research carried out at Cambridge University. Autonomy's strength
lies in advanced pattern-matching techniques (non-linear adaptive
digital signal processing), rooted in the theories of Bayesian
Inference and Claude Shannon's Principles of Information, that enable
identification of the patterns that naturally occur in text, based on
the usage and frequency of words or terms that correspond to specific
concepts.

Based on the preponderance of one pattern over another in a piece of
unstructured information, Autonomy enables computers to understand
that there is a particular probability that a document in question is
about a specific subject. In this way, Autonomy is able to extract a
document's digital essence, encode the unique "signature" of the key
concepts, then enable a host of operations to be performed on that
text, automatically.


IDOL Server
At the heart of Autonomy's software infrastructure lies the IDOL
Server. It serves as a platform for understanding the meaning and
significance of information: additional functionality can be
seamlessly integrated in order to perform advanced operations on that
data. Using this off-the-shelf solution, organizations can quickly
process digital information automatically and communicate with
multiple applications without the need for manual processing or
meta-data.

Architecture
IDOL Server has an open architecture and is entirely data-agnostic and
scalable, thereby allowing large organizations to manage vast
quantities of information regardless of format or storage location.

Connectors
Using Autonomy connectors, IDOL integrates information from over 300
different repositories through an understanding of content and access
rights, delivering a real-time environment in which operations across
applications and content are automated, removing all the manual
processes.





http://www.autonomy.com/content/Products/IDOL/

IDOL Server Overview

Almost all internal operations and processes within an organization
are interconnected; in the same way, technology itself should allow
communication between applications, regardless of the back-end data
sources. Autonomy provides a new layer within the enterprise, the
Intelligent Data Operating Layer Server, making it possible for
organizations to automatically process digital content and allow
applications to communicate with each other.






Their jv with Netcom is described here:


http://www.autonomy.com/content/Press/Archives/2005/0718.html

AUTONOMY ANNOUNCES CHINESE JOINT VENTURE WITH CHINA NETCOM BROADBAND
Joint venture with one of China's largest telecoms will bring next
generation technology to rapidly expanding Chinese consumer internet
market

Cambridge, England - 18 July 2005 - Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU.
or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the
enterprise, today announced an agreement to form a joint venture with
China Netcom Broadband Corporation Limited ("CNCBB") to bring next
generation technology to the rapidly expanding consumer internet
market. CNCBB is the largest provider of broadband and fixed line
connectivity in Northern China with over 110 million customers or 95%
of the market in an area which includes China's capital, Beijing.
CNCBB is currently part of the China Netcom Group, one of China's
largest telecoms providers, and has entered into an agreement to
receive significant investment from PCCW Limited. The new service will
bring together Autonomy's enterprise retrieval expertise and newly
developed consumer technologies and CNCBB's unmatched reach in the
market. blinkx, the integrated search specialist bringing together the
desktop, Web and TV, will provide branding to the venture.






The site also contains a great deal of information on their business
partners.  Autonomy partners with hundreds of other companies, and
there does not appear (to me) to be a single, major partner involved
with technology development.  Some of the recent agreements and
collaborations can be seen in their press release archives:



http://www.autonomy.com/content/Press/Archives/2005/


and include:




FRANCE TELECOM 

BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS

JANSSEN-CILAG

HEARST NEWSPAPERS' HOUSTON CHRONICLE SELECTS AUTONOMY'S IDOL WITH
RETINA TO POWER ITS WEB SITE

ROYAL AIR FORCE 

INTERNET SECURITIES, INC





Their partnership program for inviting new business partners is described here:


http://www.autonomy.com/content/Partners/

Autonomy Partner Program
At Autonomy, we recognize that success is not based on cutting-edge
technology alone, but on leading-edge partners able to deliver
powerful and scalable Autonomy solutions.

The Autonomy Partner program is your direct line to an exclusive
network of value-added resellers, systems integrators, consultants,
application developers and OEMs who can apply their proven expertise
in a variety of industries and business disciplines in solving your
toughest challenges.




and there are quite a number of interesting-looking case studies at this link:


http://www.autonomy.com/content/Customers/Case_Studies/

Customer Case Studies
Autonomy's solution addresses every information issue in modern
business, across all sectors. The following case studies describe the
unique set of challenges faced by each company, and how Autonomy
solved them.





I did not see any indication that Autonomy has provided search
technology to Scotland Yard.  If you can provide a bit more background
on where you came across this statement, I would be happy to look into
it further.



I trust this information fully answers your question.  However, please
don't rate this answer until you have everything you need.  If you
would like any additional information, just post a Request for
Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further, and I'm at
your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga



search strategy -- Google searches on:


search netcom holmes-II OR holmesII idol


search engine idol netcom

Request for Answer Clarification by fuego-ga on 01 Sep 2005 02:44 PDT
First thanks for getting those links together for me.  "Autonomy" as
you mentioned is an established publicly traded company.  Because is
was publicly traded I knew it was not the "startup" company I was
looking for but was I beleave the partner company in the joint venture
with China Netcom which is definitely part of the puzzle.  Looking on
Autonomy's web site under press releases I viewed an article referring
to a San Francisco based start up named "blinkx" partnering in the
China Netcom deal.
Googling "blinkx" got me to their site which offered press links about
there revolutionary search engine technology.  I believe "blinkx" is
the other part of this puzzle.  Apparently Autonomy is helping to
develope this technology and use it in their "IDOL" software or
perhaps in conjunction with it.  At any rate your Autonomy lead got me
going in the right direction and I believe I have found what I'm
looking for.  Thanks for your help.

Request for Answer Clarification by fuego-ga on 01 Sep 2005 02:51 PDT
I just realized that "blinkx" was mentioned very briefly in one of your links.
In your China Netcom link (5th link down)it mentions a significant
investment was made by PCCW as part of that deal.  Who or what is
that?

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 01 Sep 2005 09:17 PDT
fuego-ga,

I'm glad to hear that the links I provided allowed you to zero in on
blinkx, a company that has gotten a fair amount of buzz lately.

Another well known company is PCCW, one of Asia's largest players in
the whole telecom area.  You can read a bit about them here:



==========
http://www.pccw.com/eng/AboutUs/CompanyProfile.html

PCCW is one of Asia's leading integrated communications companies. As
the incumbent telecommunications provider in Hong Kong, PCCW is
committed to building shareholder value by leveraging synergies among
its core businesses and partners to deliver total solutions to
corporate and consumer customers throughout Asia, particularly in
greater China.
==========



Here's a bit more on blinkx as well, which is apparently being looked
at by Rupert Murdoch's vast media empire as a possible takeover
target:


==========
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Jy8p7x0T5rTF7D/Murdoch-in-Talks-to-Buy-Net-Search-Engine-Blinkx.xhtml

Murdoch in Talks to Buy Net Search Engine Blinkx

08/16/05 

News Corp., the media giant controlled by Rupert Murdoch, is
understood to be seeking to further its ambitions in the Internet
arena by holding talks to buy an online search engine for video and
television clips.

News Corp.'s talks with Blinkx, a company that was set up by a
Cambridge University graduate and is based in San Francisco, are
believed to be at an early stage.
==========



Hope you have everything you need at this point, but if there's
anything else I can do for you, just let me know.


Cheers,

paf
fuego-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
Very professional, thorough and timely answer. Thanks again.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Start up company with new search engine technology
From: pafalafa-ga on 01 Sep 2005 11:07 PDT
 
And thank you, as well. 

Hope we'll see you back at Google Answers one day soon.


paf

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