OpenText: Imitation, Integration or Innovation? Pick Two
August 20, 2010
It’s nothing new to hear about a software company putting its once-hot acquisitions out to pasture, but a possible recent move by enterprise search big dog Open Text has us wondering. The root of this change comes from a recent announcement about the company’s exciting search advances. Detailed in a Red Orbit story, “Open Text Launches Semantic Navigation,” this new program is unquestionably an innovative addition to the search world. Where most search engines just look for words that match a searcher’s input, Semantic Navigation aims to read between the lines in a way that, to our knowledge, hasn’t been done before. Think Endeca and 1998 or so.
“Open Text Semantic Navigation offers a way to improve the user experience,” the article explains. “At the core of the offering is the Open Text Content Analytics engine that intelligently extracts meaning, sentiment and context from content, and in turn marries that content to what a customer or prospect is looking for on a Web site. The result is that audiences more consistently and quickly find helpful, valuable information with much less effort.”
With its implementation, Open Text seems to have put all the necessary pieces together for a success. According to the article, this deeper search option, “is designed to complement any existing Web site, independent of the Web content management system used, either installed on local servers or as an online service provided by Open Text. With the cloud-based offering (currently in beta), organizations can rapidly and inexpensively upgrade their sites’ user experience.”
This sounds like a great option for improving search and, if it catches on, we have no doubt other search programs will follow suit. Some search services we are wondering about, however, include BASIS, BRS, Fulcrum, and SGML. These are four of Open Text’s search systems and all were omitted from the article. This leads us to believe that these four may not benefit from the wonders of Semantic Navigation simultaneously. These services may need some Xzibit-style dressing up in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 20 ,2010
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3 Responses to “OpenText: Imitation, Integration or Innovation? Pick Two”
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Arnold,
I was a little bit surprised that you did not spot out your old friend – Nstein – under the comfy blanket of Open Text. Here are some some pieces:
1. Nstein releases Semantic Site Search
http://www.nstein.com/en/news-and-events/press-releases/2009/nstein-technologies-launches-semantic-site-search.php
2. Open Text buys Nstein
http://www.nstein.com/en/news-and-events/press-releases/2010/open-text-to-acquire-nstein-technologies.php
3. Suddenly (and completely unexpected) Open Text breaks into semantic search business and releases its site search tool!
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1905766/open_text_launches_semantic_navigation/index.html?source=r_technology
Speak of overnight makeovers 🙂
Ran across this (http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2010/06/28/opentext-nstein-confusing-information-surfaces/) after I submitted the comment above. Seems like Martin already posted that Nstein Semantic Site Search = Open Text Semantic Navigation. Thus, please consider my previous comment out of date 🙂
Rogynskyy,
In the blog I am able to hit a handful of topics and companies. Please, feel free to supplement, agree, or disagree with what the writers produce.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2010