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Toshiba, NTT to test search engine

TOKYO - Toshiba Corp and NTT Communications Corp plan to begin public testing of a search engine designed specifically for perusing Internet commerce sites.

The testing will take place on the UDDI Business Registry service that NTT Communications opened last October.

Users will be able to input what item they are searching for as well as how many they need, and the search engine will examine multiple vendor sites and display the most appropriate one.

Toshiba plans to use the know-how it gains from the testing to its business planning electronic commerce systems. The UDDI system is a database covering many vendors that customers can access and combine according to their own needs.

Travel agencies, for example, might select airlines, railways and hotel reservation services to package as a product for sale to consumers.

Ordinary search engines are not the best way to approach this system because they rely on keyword matches. The new search technology is based on meaning, so that a search for "components" might also turn up sites featuring "parts" or "bolts".

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

Sep 27, 2003

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