Speeding the search for intelligence

In other In-Q-Tel news, Northern Light reports it is partnering with the organization on an advanced search system that they say will eliminate the need to manually sift through huge numbers of documents in various languages.

In-Q-Tel will take advantage of a combination of search capabilities from Northern Light that will use double-byte technology to deliver relevant Web content in multiple languages.

According to the companies, a targeted crawl of Web sites identified by classification experts will create a database of all relevant information while excluding sites that are deemed unimportant. Users will access the search system via keyword or Boolean syntax, or a combination of search techniques. Northern Light’s multiple-factor relevance ranking algorithm will order the results and will be customized to meet special needs.

In-Q-Tel CEO Gilman Louie says, “This new application of Northern Light’s technology can deliver just the right information to our clients to save them from extensive and time-consuming searches typically done manually. Now users can quickly determine what’s relevant and what’s not.”

David Seuss, Northern Light’s CEO, comments, “With the U.S. government as its client, In-Q-Tel is a sophisticated user of new information technologies for timely and precise information. We are delighted that they have looked to Northern Light to aggregate, search and filter critical information.”

Northern Light has also decided to focus more on the needs of enterprise customers and, as of Jan. 16, no longer provides free Web search capabilities to the general public. The company says the move allows it to lower the cost of maintaining a public Web site and concentrate the resources on the company’s core businesses in search and content integration solutions for enterprises, as well as news and archive content for enterprises and the public.

The company will continue to offer Web searching to enterprise customers and maintain and update its index of more than 350 million Web pages to provide enterprise customers with search. None of the more than 100 custom Web crawls running for Northern Light’s enterprise customers will be affected by the discontinuation of free public access to the Northern Light Web index, the company reports.