Online Services provide platform for business information.
Share:
Press Release Summary:
Dialog Profound® and Dialog NewsRoom are accessible through unified interface, which features links to each service, enabling users to search related arrays of content simultaneously and move between services without delay. Developed for business information, news, and market research content, SmartTerms(TM) taxonomy provides more than 855,000 terms in 5 categories, allowing researchers to perform search that returns highly relevant results.
Original Press Release:
Dialog Launches Strategic Platform for Business Information, News and Market Research: New Versions of Dialog Profound® and Dialog® Newsroom Now Available
CARY, N.C., USA (March 15, 2004) - Dialog, a Thomson (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, said today that it has developed and launched a new, comprehensive technology platform for its line of business information, news and market research services.
The new platform leverages investment from Thomson and the underlying technology that powers its various online services, as well as technology acquired through the 2001 Thomson purchase of NewsEdge, now part of Dialog. Developed over a three-year period, the platform and a new intuitive interface are the result, in part, of extensive participation from Dialog's global customer advisory board and other key customers worldwide who provided feedback via focus groups, usability testing and rigorous alpha and beta testing.
"We've designed the platform as a strategic piece of technology that allows us to bundle business information, news and market research content," said Roy M. Martin, Jr., Dialog president and CEO. "The comprehensive platform offers advanced and powerful online research services that serve both the occasional user as well as the professional researcher by producing highly relevant results."
ENHANCED SERVICES ON NEW PLATFORM PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE ACCESS
Dialog said that new versions of two services - Dialog Profound and Dialog NewsRoom - are now operating on the new platform and are accessible through the unified interface. Current versions of three other Dialog services -- Dialog Intelliscope(sm), Dialog Company Profiles and Dialog NewsEdge(r) -- also are accessible through the shared interface and will be available on the new platform later this year.
The intuitive user-friendly interface, which features separate opening-screen tabs that link to each individual service, enables users to readily search related arrays of content simultaneously and also to move between Dialog services without delay.
Designed to make it easy for occasional researchers to find relevant information quickly, the new interface also serves the demanding needs of experienced professional searchers with powerful, more advanced search options, which enable information professionals to craft highly precise searches that return results with pinpoint accuracy.
Customers will be able to use a single password for all of the services available from the new interface. Dialog also will offer a single invoice for all of the services available on the interface subscribed to by a customer.
NEW TAXONOMY ENSURES ACCURATE, RELEVANT RESULTS
The new platform features the launch of SmartTerms(tm), Dialog's exclusive taxonomy. Developed especially for business information, news and market research content, SmartTerms leverages the strengths of both the Dialog NewsEdge Real-time Content Refinery (RtCR) and the Dialog Profound InfoSort taxonomy. RtCR is a background information classification, tagging and XML conversion system. It analyzes, filters and sorts content to optimize delivery to subscribers.
With more than 855,000 terms in five categories - industry, subject, geographic location, company and publication - SmartTerms enables researchers to perform a search that returns highly relevant results. When developing SmartTerms, Dialog included acronyms, company abbreviations, colloquialisms and slang. For example, a SmartTerms search in the Company Tab for "HP" will yield results for "Hewlett Packard." A search on "Initial Public Offerings" will retrieve documents that only use "IPO" as well as those that spell out the phrase.
An additional benefit of SmartTerms is improved document hyper-linking features, which automatically suggest additional research options and facilitate in-depth research without interruption. For example, a news report about a British company retrieved from Dialog NewsRoom might be linked to a comprehensive company intelligence briefing report on that company, which might be linked to a market analysis report on that company's industry sector.
DIALOG BILLBACK(tm) TRACKS ONLINE USAGE
With the launch of the new platform, Dialog also has introduced Dialog BillBack, a free Web-based cost-recovery service that tracks online research charges and generates usage reports for client invoicing or internal budgeting. The new service is now available for Dialog Profound and Dialog NewsRoom customers, and will be available for Dialog Intelliscope, Dialog Company Profiles and Dialog NewsEdge later this year when new versions of those services are introduced.
Dialog BillBack enables Dialog subscribers to track research costs by client, account group, subaccounts, project, user, date range or by a number of other criteria. Highly customized reports can be generated, automatically on a scheduled basis or as needed, for use in invoicing or departmental budgeting.
Said Martin: "The launch of the new platform with enhanced Dialog Profound and Dialog NewsRoom services is only the beginning. In the months ahead, our customers will benefit as we continue to leverage our new platform to offer additional, powerful business information, news and market research services. We are excited by what we are building for the global business information community we serve."
ABOUT DIALOG AND THE THOMSON CORPORATION
Dialog, a pioneer in developing the technology behind electronic information retrieval, is the world leader in providing online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law.
Today, the online services provided by Dialog - offered through the Dialog(r), Dialog Profound(r), Dialog DataStar(tm), NewsEdge and Intelligence Data brands - give users the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 1.4 billion unique records, accessible via the Internet or through delivery to enterprise intranets. Searchable content includes articles and reports from thousands of real-time news feeds, newspapers, broadcast transcripts and trade publications, plus research reports and analyst notes providing support for financial decision-making, as well as in-depth repositories of scientific and technical data, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property data. Information professionals and end-users at business, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries prize Dialog services for their depth and breadth of content, precision searching and speed.
Based in Cary, N.C., USA, Dialog has operations in 31 other countries. Dialog (www.dialog.com) is a business of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC;TSX: TOC). With 2003 revenues of US$7.6 billion, Thomson (www.thomson.com) is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers.
All designated trademarks used herein are the property of The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries. Registered marks are registered by The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
