IsoQuest Inc., a provider of knowledge
management software for electronic publishing, delivered the newest product
in its NetOwl Family of Intelligence Discovery tools, NetOwl for Classifieds.
The Fairfax, VA-based company said NetOwl for Classifieds allows newspapers
to publish their classified advertising on the Internet quickly and
accurately.
NetOwl automatically parses classified ads, expanding and interpreting
abbreviations and acronyms, and stores the results in a structured format for
database access.
The product is derived from years of research in natural language processing
(NLP) technology that was originally aimed at the federal intelligence
community, the company said. Clients include Thomson Corp., Individual Inc.,
and Knight-Ridder New Media.
The NetOwl NLP-based technology is uniquely suited to recognizing and
processing the vagaries in free text found in classified ads. The company
said. For example, NetOwl recognizes that “Bdr.,” “Bdrm.,” and “Bd.” are all
abbreviations for “bedroom,” can accurately distinguish between “$2,000 down”
and “$2,000 obo (or best offer),” and can differentiate between “Excel” when
used to refer to a car model and “excel.” as an abbreviation for “excellent
condition.”
Paul Jacobs, president and CEO of IsoQuest, said: “NetOwl allows our clients
to increase revenues by using their classified ad content to feed the many
new applications and services arising from using the Web as a distribution
channel. Newspapers maintain control of their advertising content, and
newspaper staffs can focus on the more important tasks of enhancing their
online presence rather than on the mundane details of parsing advertisements.”
NetOwl for Classifieds includes customizable modules for real estate,
transportation, and employment and is available for both Windows NT and Unix
environments. Pricing was not disclosed.
