BTLookSmart adds WiseNut technology

WiseNut replaced Google as the backend search technology on BTopenworld at the end of last month. The technology was acquired by BTLookSmart's US shareholder LookSmart in February. It had previously been most prevalent on the Japanese and Korean markets.

WiseNut uses a relevancy-ranking system for its searches, which measures the relative importance of the pages it finds and the relevance of those pages within a given search.

Another tool, WiseGuide, suggests ways of making searches more effective by automatically generating categories related to words within WiseNut search queries. Users can specify terms that narrow down their results.

There is also a sneak preview feature that enables users to look at a sample of the item on the search results, without having to leave the full list.

BTLookSmart chief operating officer Kevin Kerrigan said: "We differ from other search service providers such as Overture and Google by having a full product mix of hosting pages, selling graphics, keyword integration and directory search."

BTLookSmart previously used Inktomi, Google or FAST for search functionality, depending on the wishes of the individual ISP it was working with.

Apart from BTopenworld, the firm's main clients include MSN, Tiscali, ntl and AltaVista.

This article was first published on revolutionmagazine.com

• Email
• Clip & Save

Share:

• Bookmark on...
• Delicious
• Stumble It!
• Facebook
• Reddit
• DIGG
• Google
• Yahoo

You must log in to use Clip & Save

Only registered users may comment. Sign in now or register for free.