Xerox tool analyzes text to improve search results
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(InfoWorld) - Xerox researchers have developed a search tool that tries to understand documents, rather than looking for keywords, in order to provide better results. The tool, FactSpotter, analyzes the underlying grammar of a text in order to infer additional information, such as whether ambiguous words are being used as nouns or verbs, or to whom a pronoun refers, said FrÃ©dÃ©rique Segond, who manages the parsing and semantics research group at Xerox Research Center Europe near Grenoble, France. The analysis allows the software to understand that references to "Bill Gates," "he" and "the head of Microsoft" in the same document likely refer to the same person. But the software should also be able to tell that "Bill Gates said ... " and "A friend of Bill Gates said ..." do not precede words spoken by the same person, a situation that would likely lead search engines using keyword analysis alone to return irrelevant results. One of the first groups to use FactSpotter will be Xerox Litigation Services, which next year will build it into a suite of "e-discovery" software for the legal profession, Segond said. In the discovery phase of a lawsuit, where legal teams must often sift through millions of e-mail messages and other documents, the software could be used to identify the sender and recipients of messages, and pick out information about events and dates from them. These features could be used to form a picture of who knew what, and when, in order to build a solid legal case, she said. Segond's research team developed their own metalanguage to describe the grammars of different human languages. So far, they have used it to build descriptions of Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. A joint Fujitsu-Xerox research team has also used it to describe Japanese grammar, showing that it can be used for languages using other writing systems. FactSpotter itself is written in the C programming language, and the researchers have also developed modules in Java and Python, allowing the software to interface with other applications. Although the software only analyzes written language, it can be linked with audio transcription tools in order to search radio and TV archives, and the company is involved in joint research projects to do just that, Segond said.
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Microsoft has entered the desktop search fray, releasing a test version of its tool to find documents, e-mails and other files on a PC hard drive.
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Microsoft Corp.  on Monday unveiled a new, preliminary version of its search tool for finding documents, e-mail and other files stored on personal computer hard drives.
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cpdetector is a configureable java framework for code page detection of textual documents. It may be used to allow applications like browsers, file-sharing software or search engines to correctly handle data received over network. The new version 1.02 is a result of beginning with quality assurance and covers 2 severe bugs, additional features (XML dtd's, test/build automation and a new ASCII fallback detection implementation.    Changelog:   http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=254536  Download:   http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=114421   Homepage:   http://cpdetector.sourceforge.net
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Microsoft debuted a test-version of a new desktop search product Monday that scans hard drives for information in saved e-mails, pictures, Web pages, PDF files, and word processing documents, among other files.
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An online tool makes it easier to dig up your broker's dirt.
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New version allows users to categorize entries and make layout changes more easily.
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Microsoft-endorsed Open XML Translator project releases downloadable ODF converter.
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Desktop search can help you sort through your computer's contents
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Carsten Cumbrowski, a Search Engine Journal columnist, has developed a tool which some webmasters may find useful. It converts the .CSV files which can be downloaded from Google Webmaster Central into cleaner customized files which can be used with other tools and software. I met Carsten at Search Engine Strategies San Jose and learned that he [...]
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How the right tools can create a solid search strategy.
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Ask.com enhances its search engine offerings.
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With no fear of the confusion that can arise from text-message shorthand, a new search service is employing a novel tool to answer queries sent by cell phones: human beings.
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Most people are content to let their word processor determine hyphenation and  text breaks for them. And, most of the time, the result is acceptable if they do. However, just as the default justification can be improved if you want to take the time, so can the text flow. OpenOffice.org has the tools you need, but improving the text flow is as much about knowing the conventions of text flow (what you might think of as the typographical grammar) as the settings themselves.
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Using speech-to-text software and studying the contextual relationships between words, a new startup makes audio files as searchable as text on the web. By Eliot Van Buskirk.
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New PostScript RIP gives designers more options in output formats.
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New data classification tools can inspect content, identify patterns, and generally provide greater insight into the purpose and value of a particular file. Some of these applications also provide extensive indexing capabilities, as well.