Vivisimo announces the Velocity Search Platform 7.0, which has been designed, it says, to advance conceptual search with a new interface that gives users explicit control to fine-tune queries and personalize search to meet their information goals.

Velocity's conceptual search empowers users to identify their search goal upfront. Velocity 7.0 gives users the option to increase precision to search for particular documents or increase recall to find all related information, making more explicit the relationships between data. Further, the new interface allows users to see precisely how they are modifying their search, explains Vivisimo.

The company claims that by making the process of modifying searches more transparent and giving more control over that process to users, Velocity 7.0 helps produce better, more satisfying results. Other implementations that hide the search modification process behind an "engine-knows-best" facade produce less relevant results and more frustrated users.

In Velocity 7.0, users can expand queries using automatically created related concepts derived from a combination of Vivisimo's clustering methods and enhanced heuristics. Further, says the company, thesauri and ontologies can be incorporated to refine or expand queries using synonyms and broader or narrower terms.

Vivisimo highlights the following new developments in 7.0:

• Conceptual search empowers users to personalize intent of their task--to expand or refine their search--using the new interface.
• Velocity 7.0 leverages an enterprise's work to create thesauri and ontologies, providing employees with an easy way to use them in improving discovery of desired information.
• IT configuration is Web-based, allowing administrators to easily define default settings.

Recommind has released Insite Legal Hold, which is designed to help enterprises explore, preserve and collect electronically stored information to prepare for--and comply with litigation--regulatory oversight and investigations.

Recommind says Insite Legal Hold is platform-agnostic and completely customizable, making it possible to integrate with a variety of enterprise data sources, including content management systems, e-mail and archiving systems, as well as intranets and portals.

The company reports that additional features and benefits include:

• deep analytical tools, including the industry's only solution with Early Risk Assessment technology;
• search technology that encompasses integrated conceptual, full Boolean and keyword search;
• the ability to manage myriad data sources, custodians and matters simultaneously;
• rich auditability and reporting, including full exception handling and chain-of-custody reports;
• enhanced system performance, management and monitoring; and
• built-in processing of data (i.e. deduplication, near-duping, e-mail threading, etc.).

Kazeon Systems has launched new federation, unified analysis and review features for Information Center, the company's e-discovery solution.

Kazeon reports Information Center is designed to reduce e-discovery costs for global enterprises with distributed locations by eliminating the requirement to transfer huge amounts of data across wide area networks (WANs) or shipping physical disk drives between locations. Information Center further offers a unified view of targeted and relevant documents for e-discovery analysis and review, says Kazeon. In-place legal hold is supported through the company's KazHold capabilities.

Kazeon highlights these additional features of federated e-discovery:

Simplexo, an open source enterprise search provider, and Ingres, a provider of open source database management software and support services, announced a partnership. Joint customers will benefit with access to Ingres Database, an enterprise grade open source database, coupled with Simplexo’s ability to search all enterprise information. Simplexo provides "single click’ information retrieval, enabling companies to search both structured and unstructured data sources. Simplexo Enterprise will complement the Ingres IceBreaker BI Appliance, which delivers business intelligence needs from reporting, analysis, and dashboards to complete data integration with existing systems. 

(www.simplexo.com, www.ingres.com)

Web analytics provider Omniture reports it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of privately held Mercado, a provider of online merchandising and site search technology. The acquisition includes technology and related intellectual property, customer and partner agreements, and certain operational assets.

Mercado is currently integrated with Omniture SiteCatalyst through Omniture Genesis. The Mercado products and the recently announced Omniture SiteSearch are said to be very complementary, and the company intends to continue to support and develop both solutions.

Upon closing of the transaction, Omniture will acquire certain of Mercado's intellectual property and business assets for approximately $6.5 million cash and the assumption of certain related operating liabilities. The closing of the transaction is subject to governmental approvals in Israel and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Omniture does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on its 2008 operating results.

Google is extending its hosted e-mail archiving service to hold messages for up to a decade. Google Message Discovery is a hosted service that helps organizations manage email retention and security. For a flat fee of $45 per user per year, users can add hosted archiving with the ability to retain messages for up to 10 years, along with spam and virus filtering, all powered by Postini. Google will still offer Message Discovery at $25 for archiving e-mail for a year or less. Both packages include full email security service, with spam and virus filtering, along with policy management tools and a discovery search interface to locate relevant email in the event of litigation.

(www.google.com)  

Advanced Solutions International (ASI), a global provider of web-based solutions for associations and non-profits, announced a partnership with iDashboards, provider of enterprise dashboard software, to launch the business intelligence tool, iDashboards for iMIS. The solution enables non-profit organizations to leverage iMIS information through visually-rich, personalized data sets to analyze, track, and drill down through information in real time.
iDashboards for iMIS supports membership and events management by consolidating information to provide a uniform view of membership status. The solution also helps non-profits with fundraising initiatives by comparing donor habits, gift sizes, volunteer times and other metrics. Business Intelligence Tool Highlights iDashboards for iMIS helps non-profits deliver performance management, scorecards, and business alerts.

(www.advsol.com, www.idashboards.com)  

Autonomy Corporation plc, a global provider of infrastructure software, announced Autonomy ControlPoint, an information governance solution for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). ControlPoint is an information governance solution that enables real-time, enterprise-wide control of all SharePoint content. Autonomy ControlPoint facilitates governance tasks, including classification, preservation, or disposition of information assets based on its ability to understand the meaning of information being collaborated across different SharePoint servers and other content repositories. Autonomy ControlPoint addresses the governance limitations within SharePoint to support complex global information policies and regulations. The new Autonomy solution centrally manages any information asset and applies legal hold and disposition from across different SharePoint servers and other repositories located on a company’s WAN.

(www.autonomy.com/controlpoint)

IBM announced the release of IBM Content Collection and Archiving products for archiving email, classifying content, and searching multiple information sources--independent of where and how the content was created, processed, and archived. IBM’s Content Collection and Archiving products are based on a modular, extensible architecture and are designed to collect content from sources, including email or file attachments. IBM's Content Collection and Archiving family consists of IBM Content Collector for Email, IBM Content Collector for File Systems, IBM Content Collector Preload Edition, and IBM Content Collector Enterprise Bundle.

(www-01.ibm.com/software/data/content-management/archiving.html)

Datawatch Corporation, an Enterprise Information Management (EIM) provider, introduced Monarch V10, the latest upgrade to its report mining and analysis solution. This latest version provides new analytic and styling capabilities, enhanced Excel integration, and access to new data sources. A Business Intelligence (BI) solution, Monarch V10 allows users to unlock data buried in reports and other business documents without programming, as well as import and combine information from additional data sources, such as PDFs, databases, or spreadsheets. Key Monarch V10 features include enhanced Excel integration, new filtering and summary capabilities, and new report styling capabilities to improve data presentation.
 
(www.datawatch.com)

Fios Inc., provider of electronic discovery services to corporations and their outside counsel, announced the release of its e-discovery technology and service upgrades. Fios has rebuilt the search architecture in Fios Prevail and has added Content Analyst’s concept search engine to the hosted review platform. Fios has also added iCONECT’s review and case management software to its data management center. The newest upgrades are designed to deliver the following benefits: expanded review options with iCONECTnXT, new search architecture in Fios Prevail, and Integration of Content Analyst Analytical Technology (CAAT).
 
(www.fiosinc.com)