Teragram Unveils MyGADs.com at CTIA Wireless Show


CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ORLANDO, Fla., March 27: Teragram, a multilingual information retrieval technology company, today announced the free, beta launch of MyGADs.com (SM), an online service which allows users to create, share and search personalized collections of information, known as GADs, using mobile phone text messaging (short code 72044), IM and the Web. Once a GAD is created, users can initiate a simple dialog to retrieve or add information within the same search box using text messages, instant messages or the Web.

Teragram is launching MyGADs.com to bring its self-developed technologies to the consumer market, building on 10 years' experience in search and retrieval technologies for large-scale deployments including The Homeland Security Digital Library, The World Bank, The New York Times, Associated Press and more.

GAD's unique concept extends the traditional search box to a dialog interaction in which the users can not only search but also instantly add information and interact with the GAD. GADs are unique, user-created communities of personalized information, documents, images and Web pages, which can be shared and edited by anyone with a mobile phone, IM name or Web access. Users who register for an account at MyGADs.com are able to quickly and easily create personalized, password-protected GADs, or individual Websites aimed at specific groups of people - such as their families, sports teams, schools and friends. Permissions can be set so their GADs can be searched, shared and edited by others. GADs can be exclusive to individualized groups of people, or can be made completely public.

Creating a GAD

Beginning today, anyone visiting MyGADs.com or text messaging short code 72044 will be able to create their own personalized GAD and experience this social networking application on their mobile device. A GAD can be created online or on a mobile phone by text messaging the word "signup" to 72044, followed by a space and the desired username. For example, "signup JohnDoe." The user will receive a welcome text in return along with a unique temporary password for MyGADs.com, and can begin storing and retrieving information.

Storing information on a GAD is easy. Once a user is enrolled, they can add a statement, such as "Jill birthday is 6/4/83." MyGADs.com acknowledges the added information by responding, "Statement Added." Now, the user can access this information on a mobile phone by texting queries, such as "What is Jill's birthday?" MyGADs.com responds, "6/4/83." The same information is also available under the user's account at MyGADs.com and on the user's instant messaging system.

Built in to every personalized GAD is pre-populated information such as localized weather (e.g. "weather in Boston"), world clock, encyclopedic information from Wikipedia (e.g. "who is Albert Einstein") and Internet Movie Database (e.g. "Spiderman 2 director"), and conversion calculators ("(33*74)km in miles" ).

Patented Technology Based on a Decade of Leadership in Linguistic Search

Teragram invested $20 million in research and development for the technology behind GAD. It is built upon an established linguistic search business that many consumers use online every day - whether they're playing video games on Sony Playstation Global, searching the Web on Yahoo.com or receiving CNN.com e-mail news alerts. Teragram holds three patents for the unique technology behind MyGADs.com, and nearly a dozen patents-pending, in addition to many more patents for its enterprise technologies.

"Teragram developed MyGADs.com as a collaborative environment where people can use their mobile phones to access personalized information, and share it with whomever they want," said Yves Schabes, president and co-founder of Teragram. "The company's strong foundation in information retrieval technologies was a launching point for this innovative combination of collaboration and search. People with common interests can now easily share and retrieve information on a mobile phone, which nearly everyone has in his or her pocket."

There are unlimited practical applications for using a GAD in daily life. For example, if a soccer coach created one for her team, she could include all of the players' home phone numbers, scheduling information, directions to fields and parents' names, and easily retrieve this information from anywhere, at any time. By sending a simple text message to her GAD that reads "Julie's phone number," the coach can receive a text message in return which gives the number. In addition, parents and team members who are allowed access to the coach's GAD can text, search or IM it to ask questions, such as "Where is the March 15 game?" Standard information from throughout the Web, such as localized weather, time zone conversions, calculators and more are also available for easy search using GAD.

Pricing and Availability

GADs will be available during this free beta launch starting today. MyGADs.com will remain a free service throughout the beta period.

About Teragram and MyGADs.com(SM)

Teragram Corporation, a provider of linguistic search applications and natural language processing technologies, was founded in 1997 by Yves Schabes and Emmanuel Roche, both PhDs with extensive backgrounds in computer science. Teragram has been profitable and independent since inception. The development of MyGADs.com required five years and $20 million in R&D resulting in three patents with 12 additional pending. Teragram's search technologies currently help consumer-facing companies deliver faster, richer Web 2.0 experiences ranging from AOL, Monster.com, Sony Playstation Global, Ask Jeeves and Yahoo!, to top news portals such as CNN.com's news alerts, ABCNews.com, Associated Press, Forbes.com, Washingtonpost.com and the New York Times (nytimes.com). Teragram's enterprise applications drive more efficient searches and better organize information in 30 languages. Enterprise deployments include government organizations, publishing, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and financial leaders such as The World Bank, Reed Business Information and the Naval Post Graduate School's Homeland Security Digital Library.

For more information visit mygads.com and www.teragram.com or contact Teragram Corporation at 617-576-6800, or Chuck Kabat and Erica Salamida at Schwartz Communications, 781-684-0770 or teragram@schwartz-pr.com.

Source: Teragram Corporation

CONTACT: Chuck Kabat, Erica Salamida, both of Schwartz Communications for Teragram Corporation, +1-781-684-0770, teragram@schwartz-pr.com
Web site: www.teragram.com/
http://mygads.com/

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