Free tool threatens search engines

UK software vendor Autonomy has today launched a free pattern recognition tool that it claims will do away with the need for search engines such as Yahoo and Excite.

The tool, called Kenjin, watches and understands what a user is typing and suggests links to related internet sites or documents on a user's PC. It can be downloaded free from the internet.

As a result, internet users will have links to the most relevant information they need without having to conduct a separate search on the web, said Autonomy.

For example, if a user opens a document such as an email, Kenjin reads the document with the user. It then collects related information from the internet and from the PC, which is displayed in a Window at the bottom of a users' screen or in the future, a wireless web device such as a mobile phone.

Mike Lynch, chief executive of Autonomy, said the technology will remove the need for search engines. "Typing keywords into search engines will seem as ridiculous as hand-cranking a car in a few years time," he said.

"Just because computers work with URLs, email addresses and complex directory systems why should we? Kenjin does away with all this and gives users access to documents and web pages based on what they are about rather than where they are stored or what keywords they contain."

Rob Hailstone, an analyst at Bloor Research, said Kenjin would put pressure on search engines, but added that search engine technology is improving.

Kenjin, which means 'wise man' in Japanese, is in effect a cut-down version of the so-called intelligent search engines that Autonomy sells to companies. Kenjin has been designed so that it cannot probe a corporate intranet, so as not to cannibalise Autonomy's core knowledge management business.

With its technology Autonomy has applied probability theories, based on the work of Presbyterian minister Thomas Bayes and information theory, to develop a much stronger type of search algorithm. This technology works by extracting key ideas from the pattern and frequency of words rather than the keywords used by conventional search engines.

Autonomy, which has yet to move into profit but is worth £6.5bn, will make money on Kenjin from personalised advertising and licensing it to ISPs and ecommerce sites.

Mike Lynch has become the UK's first internet billionaire through his holding in Autonomy. He started in business in 1991 with £2000 provided by an eccentric music promoter he met in a pub.

www.kenjin.com