IBM and Yahoo are partnering on a free, entry-level search engine that will allow small and midsize companies as well as departments within large enterprises to access data hidden away on corporate file servers and available on the public Web.

Called IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition, the search package, unveiled Dec. 13, is designed for organizations that want to develop internal search applications but are either unable or unwilling to spend thousands of dollars to deploy commercial search engines, said Marc Andrews, IBM program director of information management strategies, in Armonk, N.Y.

Andrews said OmniFind is not designed as a simple desktop search engine—it can search across corporate file servers, internal business Web sites and public-facing Web sites. “We wanted to provide for seamless access to enterprise search technology and make it ubiquitous across organizations and enable more companies to take advantage of this technology,” Andrews said.

Before the development of OmniFind, IBM had focused on developing the search technology that is built into enterprise products such as WebSphere Portal, Lotus Notes and the DB2 database, Andrews said. Since then, IBM has heard from organizations that want access to enterprise search technology but “didn’t necessarily want to make the significant investment required” to get it, he said.

The result is OmniFind, which gives organizations access to a search package that supports a maximum of 500,000 documents, 200 file types and documents in about 30 languages.

OmniFind users can instantly send queries to Yahoo’s Web, audio, video, image, directory, local and news search services. IBM also designed OmniFind so it would be easy to set up in three clicks and in less than 5 minutes, Andrews said.

Source: eWeek

Travel Web sites, such as Priceline.com Inc. and Expedia Inc., are clamping down on fake online consumer reviews of hotels, which could undermine a growth area.

Trustworthy sources of information are sometimes difficult to find on the Internet, and user reviews have become a way for many sites to offer apparently unbiased opinions — at a low cost to the Web companies.

But the authenticity of the opinions has not always been reliable.

“We have certainly seen instances with other properties where insiders have put reviews up for a particular hotel or a particular thing and it’s not a legitimate review,” said Jeff Boyd, Priceline.com’s Chief Executive.

“It’s somebody who’s in effect been paid to make the property look good.” Boyd said, speaking at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos 2007 Summit in Los Angeles this week.

Source: Reuters