IBM this week at the XML '99 Europe show in Granada, Spain, launched xCentral, the Internet's first search engine which exclusively looks for Extensible Markup Language data on the Web. This XML data can include XML documents, document type declarations, style-sheets, press releases, tutorials, Web pages and bulletin board postings.

IBM hopes this technology will enable programmers and customers to "speed up product development cycles, improve time to market, and expand networking and marketplace opportunities." The XML search engine, which IBM named xCentral, is a new feature available on IBM's XML Web site.

xCentral was primarily designed using Java and utilizes XML metadata for more effective search retrieval and cataloging. xCentral is actually a Web crawler, search engine and database tool which catalogs and stores nearly 100,000 "pieces" of XML data which is organized into the categories most useful for developers.

Using xCentral, developers can submit a profile of their specific interests, and when XML resources meeting their requirements are located, they will receive an e-mail notifying them. Developers can also submit their own XML resources for the database.