Bitext and NaturalFinder: Breathes Life into Legacy Search Systems
January 21, 2010
In December 2009, the managing director of Bitext, a Madrid-based software development company, bought me a hamburger. As we poked at London’s version of a Whopper, I learned that Bitext had developed a way to take a not-so-useful legacy search system and give it new life. I thought the idea was a good one because many organizations do not have the money, time, or information technology expertise to do a “rip and replace” solution to their search woes.
What does Bitext offer?
The product is called NaturalFinder. Bitext’s new language technologies make it possible to enrich a user’s queries with linguistic knowledge. The system has emerged in the international market after being implemented in the Spanish national railroad and a number of commercial enterprises.
Users of enterprise search systems have to hit on the exact combination of key words to get the information needed to answer a business question. This takes time and, according to the company’s CEO, Antonio Valderrabanos, “inefficient searching costs companies money. We developed NaturalFinder to take the rough edges off existing enterprise search solutions. We have a search turbo charger which really delivers.”
I told Bitext that research reports from Net Strategy (Paris), the Association of Image and Information Management (USA), and my team here at ArnoldIT.com (USA) say one thing: users want systems that deliver needed information without trial and error.
“With companies asking employees to do more, guessing the secret word combination to unlock the treasure chest of corporate affronting is no longer acceptable. Bitext allows the user to key a word and our technology understands the meanings and displays suggested results. A single click takes the user to results that what the user intended,” Mr. Valderrabanos told me.
The Bitext system uses a range of linguistic technologies, including word stemming, synonyms, and homonyms, among others. These technologies are invisible to the user. Once a query is entered into a search system equipped with the Bitext software, that search system generates rich metadata such as names, concepts, and events.
The system does the work for the user. The result is, “quicker searches with no training and no system slowdown”, according to Mr. Valderrabanos. “One of the technical innovations is that the Bitext NaturalFinder technology requires no changes to an organization’s existing search system. It is load and go.”
After I finished my burger, I got a full demo of the new system. I told Mr. Valderrabanos:
In my opinion, your Bitext system is one of the first search enhancements that work out of the box. The Google Search Appliance gains greater utility without the time and complexity of coding a customized software widget. Bitext has broken new ground with NaturalFinder.
Bitext has engineered its system to work with Microsoft SharePoint Server, the Google Search Appliance, Oracle Text Search, Autonomy, Endeca, and legacy Fast ESP installations. The system enhances the utility of Lucene and other open source search solutions.
NaturalFinder supports English, French, and Spanish, as well as other languages. Bitext’s engineers can develop customized applications for customers who have special requirements such as those of intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Bitext was founded in 2007 by experts in linguistics and based in Europe. The company is focused on making natural language text meaningful for computers. In addition, Bitext develops linguistic technology (dictionaries, grammars and ontologies) for OEM integration with any third-party application: from search to sentiment analysis, contextual advertising, spam filters, business intelligence, etc.
You can get more information about Bitext at www.bitext.com
Stephen E. Arnold, January 20, 2010
As I pointed out, I received a hamburger and a demonstration. I wish to disclose this to the FDA to make clear that the addled goose will sit through a demo as long as he is fed a quasi-Whopper. Alas! I received no cash. Oh, I got fries.
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