IBM Beefs Up Free Enterprise Search Tool

IBM said Monday that a number of third-party enhancements to the free, downloadable search tool it offers in partnership with Yahoo are now available.

Among other things, users of IBM's OmniFind Yahoo Edition enterprise search software can now obtain improved search results through context tools added to a version of the software available through Axioma Search LLC.

The Axioma Searcher boosts the relevancy and context control of search results yielded by the program, IBM said.

Another OmniFind Yahoo Edition mod, this one produced by visual search tool vendor Groxis, allows users to add the Grokker visual search engine to the software.

Additionally, Fortune Interactive's Featured Match tool is now available as a free add-on to OmniFind Yahoo Featured Match highlights specific results within broader search results by adding additional relevancy parameters, according to IBM.IBM said more than 21,000 companies have downloaded OmniFind Yahoo Edition since it unveiled the software six months ago. The software is designed to give businesses quicker access to internal documents stored across multiple servers.

IBM's hope is that users will eventually upgrade to its full, commercial enterprise search tool -- Omnifind Enterprise Edition.

Last week, IBM introduced a new version of OmniFind Enterprise Edition. The enhancements make it possible for users to search directly from other IBM software like Lotus Notes and WebSphere, whereas previous versions relied on a standalone Web page in the same way that Google does.

The new version of OmniFind Enterprise Edition also includes limited semantic search capabilities, designed to add abstract meaning to search queries and results.

IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition can be downloaded at http://omnifind.ibm.yahoo.com.0