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New Tools for New Rules: Page 3 of 4

InBoxer was founded by Roger Matus and Sean True -- former execs at speech recognition firm Dragon Systems -- and they apply what Matus calls language-based search techniques. No, you don't talk to the appliance to search. But like a voice recognition system, the InBoxer software is programmed to recognize certain phrases that HR, legal, and similar compliance-responsible groups might use to find applicable email.

"Our search engine is tuned to the types of things lawyers, HR managers, and compliance managers look for," Matus says. "For instance, it's hard to use a search engine to look for a social security number. We created a proprietary method of looking at things and saying, 'This looks like a social security number, even if there are periods in between or the numbers are broken up the wrong way.' "

Will it fly? It's too soon to tell, but Matus says he already has paying customers, including the San Diego Blook Bank. He's counting on FRCP to give his company a boost.

"The key to FRCP is you have to pretty much keep everything and retrieve it quickly," he says.

Design Within Reach's Martins says he thinks his company's current policies will keep it compliant with the new rules, but he hasn't fully digested the 60-odd pages of legal jargon.