PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Award-winning scientific search engine, Scirus, and FAST deliver
improved search experience for researchers
Amsterdam, August 21, 2002 - Elsevier Science, the leading international publisher of scientific information, announced in conjunction with Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST), a leading developer of search and real-time filtering technologies, a new release of Scirus, the Web search engine dedicated to science. The new version improves the user experience with more subject-specific content and features like expanded information types, dynamic teasers which highlight the search terms within the search result list, and improved relevance ranking.
“As we continue to examine ways to improve the search service for scientists, we have executed a study amongst the target audience to find out what they find most important for a dedicated science search engine” says Femke Markus, Product Manager of Scirus, “I am therefore very happy to announce that this new release brings us improved searching for scientists, based on their feedback”.
The index now contains over 107 million science specific pages, with new full-text additions like NASA reports, CogPrints pre- and postprints, and preprints from the Chemistry and Mathematics Preprint Servers. Scirus now offers over 17 million proprietary records that cannot be found using generic search engines.
The new version of Scirus contains significant enhancements aimed at assisting users with finding the most relevant results. These features have been developed using the latest search technology provided by FAST. FAST has further improved the ranking and relevance of the results by implementing “intelligent query rewrites”, which automatically attempts to understand the intention of the user and enables more intelligent searching by rewriting the queries. Query transformations performed on the searchers’ behalf include the addition of quotes around common phrases that are detected from the Scirus phrase dictionary and the removal of non-essential search words in the query such as “what is” and “where can I find information about”. Searchers may also run their queries without re-writing if they wish. Other improvements that assist the searcher in finding more relevant results include improved ranking technology and dynamic teasers that highlight the search keyword in context on the result page.
“FAST is pleased to work with Elsevier Science to help provide their users with the most comprehensive scientific information portal online,” said Dr. John M. Lervik, chief executive officer of FAST. “We are committed to helping Scirus users find the information they desire, and look forward to future collaborations that will continue to provide the best search experience possible.”
More refined searching will be facilitated by the addition
of the
new Information Types “Company Homepages” and “Preprints”. This will allow the
searcher to quickly find science-related company and product information, as
well as papers that are available before the peer-review process has been
completed.
As part of this new release, Scirus now includes a news feed with the latest science headlines provided by the Lexis Nexis Web Publisher News Database. This service provides the Scirus user with access to rich, reliable news that is continuously updated. It provides access to prominent newspapers, trade journals, reference directories, legal and legislative sources, newswires and transcripts from over 2,700 sources around the world.
About Scirus
Scirus is the most comprehensive science specific search engine available on the Internet. Driven by the latest in search engine technology, it covers more than 107 million science-related pages and can pinpoint precise scientific information that other search engines can not reach, including pdf files and peer-reviewed articles. It was launched in April 2001 by Elsevier Science (www.elsevier.com), the world’s largest scientific, technical and medical information provider, and is part of the ScienceDirect® family of products.
About FAST
Fast Search &
Transfer (FAST) creates the real-time search and filter technology solutions
that are behind the scenes at some of the world's best known companies with the
most demanding search problems. FAST's flexible and scalable integrated
technology platform spans both Internet and enterprise customers, and elevates
search to unprecedented levels. FAST closes the gap between information and
action, connecting people to the relevant information they seek regardless of
medium, in turn driving revenue and reducing total cost of ownership by
effectively leveraging IT infrastructure for our clients and world-class
partners. FAST search technology is currently deployed by a wide range of
global customers and partners; including AT&T, BroadVision, Freeserve, IBM,
InfoSpace, Reed Elsevier (Scirus.com), Reuters, T-Online, Terra Lycos, and
Tiscali.
FAST has operations in the United States, Europe (Norway, Germany, UK), and
Japan, and is publicly traded under the ticker symbol ‘FAST’ on the Oslo Stock
Exchange. Please visit www.fastsearch.com
for more information, or see FAST in action at our technology showcase www.alltheweb.com.
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Contact:
Sandra de Gelder
Elsevier
Science
+31
(0) 20 485 3851
Monica Hargis
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST)
+1 781 304 2474