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New Retrieval System for 20 Million Documents in Top Swiss Media Archive
Zurich/Bonn, December 5, 2007–The SMD Schweizer Mediendatenbank AG, an amalgamation of the three largest media companies in the country and one of the largest European media archives, has introduced MindServer 5.0 by Recommind GmbH for the fully automatic categorization and intelligent query of the complete archive. The system was put into operation in September 2007.
As a subsidiary of the major publishing houses Ringier and Tamedia and the SRG SSR idée Suisse (Swiss radio and television), the Schweizer Mediendatenbank (SMD) based in Zurich is responsible for archiving and marketing the electronically available and incoming text contents of its parent companies. More than 20 million documents from a variety of sources are stored in the archives of the SMD and can be accessed by editors for research purposes. Every year, more than 1,000,000 new documents are added.
MindServer 5.0 by Recommind ”understands” the content of text via a patented algorithm, and automatically maps the content to predefined categories without needing any manual indexing. The intelligent search engine is able to analyze context and to provide considerably better results much faster.
“We have been looking for the most efficient search system in the market for quite some time. With MindServer by Recommind we have now implemented the system that delivered the best results by far when comparing it with competing systems. Among the special challenges, it was determined that the categorization should be a fully automatic process in the background and that the search engine had to be intelligent and multi-lingual. We are very satisfied with Recommind in both regards; with their technology and expertise in the collaboration, in the implementation and in customer support, “stated Jürg Mumprecht, CEO of SMD.
According to Hartwig Laute, CEO of Recommind GmbH, the combination of a context-sensitive, intelligent search system and the possibility to navigate through categories is a decisive factor for the efficiency and precision of the system:
”Users normally enter very short search queries into a system. Based on the volume of results being returned, they need assistance to be able to work their way from the big picture to key details. Thus, a researcher could first search for “Bush” and then add the categories which include the search terms “Domestic Politics” and “Internal Security.” Based on the new result set, you can further limit the query to articles mentioning George W. Bush and Michael Mukasey to get to relevant current confrontations between these two politicians. The new search system realizes the entire enquiry mechanism via a keyword search and 3 additional mouse clicks. The result shows the top 20 relevant documents on the first result page – and that out of a total body of more than 20 million documents. That is impressive.“
About SMD:
In 1996, the three media companies Ringier, SRG SSR idee suisse, and Tamedia founded their subsidiary, the SMD Schweizer Mediendatenbank AG. Its job was to manage the entire inventory of documents and to implement an online system. With more than 20 million documents, SMD is today one of the larger media archives in Europe. Since 2002, it is also possible for private individuals to research part of the inventory against a fee.
About MindServer:
It took the company founders more than 10 years of research work at leading research centers such as UC Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University to develop the core technology. This technology enables the Recommind solutions to automatically understand contexts and correlations between subjects. This ability to understand the context helps to optimize processes in the area of company wide information management. This patented technology, which has been directly adapted from research, combines the highest possible level of quality with an extremely high level of automation.
About Recommind
Recommind’s enterprise search and categorization platform automatically organizes, manages, and distributes large volumes of information from multiple sources. With faster access to the right information, organizations can save time, enhance the quality of work product, increase the value of information assets, and improve competitiveness and profits. Recommind customers include Bertelsmann, BMW, Cleary Gottlieb, Davies Arnold Cooper, Novartis, Lewis Silkin, Shearman & Sterling and the Australian Government. Recommind is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, London, and Bonn, Germany.
For more information, email info@recommind.com, or go to www.recommind.com.
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