IT Week: As co-founder of search firm Blinkx, can you explain how your search system differs from rivals?

Suranga Chandratillake: Usually, search tools rely on a mechanical process to read documents and detect words that match the keyword. Therefore, the innovations in search tools have been around the ranking of findings. But Blinkx's approach is based on pattern matching. Blinkx doesn't just look at the words, it also understands the idea behind the words by recognising an overall pattern.

What does this deliver in terms of functionality?

Blinkx indexes local and web content by reading emails, PDFs, Word documents, Jpegs, MP3 files and so on. It then reads text in the file you are working on, understands it and provides links to related information from both your local environment and the web. It automates the workflow we all go through when we read something, react to it and look for associated information.

What else does Blinkx offer?

We've just launched Blinkx 3.0, which features a preview pane and integrated desktop search to bring together local and internet content. We also have Blinkx Smart Folders to organise searches, and Blinkx TV to index video and audio content.

Why should firms consider rolling out Blinkx?

Blinkx is free, extremely secure and stable and supports a wide range of content and applications. It is also very good at indexing local content, local email and network drives. If you have teleworkers, they spend a lot of time writing. Blinkx enhances productivity by automatically finding them related information while they are working.

What are the limitations?

When it comes to shared data, Blinkx can't index your document management system and intranet. That's where firms need to invest in the centralised model provided by enterprise search vendors. But if you want a straightforward tool to help the average employee with their productivity, Blinkx is ideal.

IT managers often feel free downloads endanger security. Are these concerns justified with Blinkx?

Communication between any modules within the system, be they on your desktop or external, are entirely encrypted, making the information very secure. Any indexing Blinkx does also follows the user's security profile. That means if you are connected to a network it cannot index your colleagues' files and if you share a computer with someone else it can't index anything that they might look at.

What are your plans for Blinkx?

We are moving fast with Blinkx TV, which lets you search TV and audio content. Previous attempts at searching TV content have been based on searching a description of the clip, but Blinkx also uses voice recognition technology to create a transcript. Currently we only search web material using this technology, but the approach works just as well with broadcast TV, digital and satellite material.

About: Suranga Chandratillake

Suranga Chandratillake is co-founder and CTO at search engine specialist Blinkx, a position he has held since 2004.

He was previously chief technologist at content management software vendor Autonomy.