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Company Press Release
-------August 16, 1999

SurfWax Targets Internet Search Satisfaction

SurfWax.com Unveils a Seamless Internet Search Process with Semantic-Structured Word Relations to Focus Search

Redwood City, Calif., August 10, 1999 -- VORT Corporation today announced the beta-launch of www.surfwax.com -- a breakthrough new Internet search site that uses a system of intuitive word-relations, along with other innovative technologies, to create an efficient and personalized Internet search experience.

"SurfWax offers a seamless process -- our meta-search automatically focuses the user’s search criteria using our integrated hierarchical FocusWords(TM). The user can view search results either from the original web document or from SiteSnaps(TM), which are fast-loading abstracts that SurfWax extracts from web page content," said Thomas D. Holt, President of VORT and developer of SurfWax(TM). Holt said that SurfWax helps the user personalize their search in a unique manner, "Our goal is to offer true Internet search satisfaction -- the best grip on the web."

SurfWax FocusWords
To deliver a powerful yet focused search experience to the user, VORT has developed scalable corpus extraction to dynamically build a hierarchy of what it calls FocusWords -- a system which can virtually eliminate problems that arise with traditional text searches. Language contains many homonyms and synonyms, and most search engines do not semantically relate words. FocusWords can help refine a user search by displaying different meanings in a hierarchical fashion. This process also categorizes words that are associated with each meaning as either broad or narrow, displaying the true lexical power of SurfWax and enabling the user to focus their search effectively.

FocusWords are incorporated into SurfWax through an innovative interface that gives the user instant access to a growing list that contains hundreds of thousands of search "candidates" that help the user refine their search criteria. Users may refine their search more with a simple point-and-click, where they have the choice of zeroing in on one of the FocusWords by looking up its related definitions and words, or adding a FocusWord to the search criteria.

Meta-Search and SiteSnap Technology
The SurfWax meta-search accesses leading engines and displays the results in a consolidated and uniquely arranged listing of de-duplicated titles with query-sensitive highlighting. "Our unique design for displaying the meta-search results offers relevant titles in a single list based on our patent-pending interactive design," said Larry Burke, director of SurfWax database and Java development.

SurfWax further enhances the search process by incorporating a system of abstracts, or SiteSnaps, related to the page titles displayed in the meta-search results. The SurfWax automated extraction method, ExtractSum(TM), is capable of generating hundreds of thousands of new FocusWords and SiteSnaps per day, applicable to the Internet, intranets, and vertical knowledge-base markets. "SiteSnaps provide unique web page abstracts, comprised of five analysis elements, to help the user 'check out' search results almost instantaneously. SiteSnaps provide more consistent information than search engine summaries," Holt said. "The use of FocusWords as part of a SiteSnap makes the entire process circular and intuitive, from focusing to personalizing the user’s experience," Mr. Burke added.

Integrated Personalization
The SurfWax personalization technique, called My Personal Searcher(TM), along with FocusWords and SiteSnaps, "is where we differentiate ourselves from other search schemes," said Holt. My Personal Searcher will map user search patterns both by search criteria and FocusWords technology, resulting in searches tuned to the individual without having the user enter profile or personal information.

About VORT Corporation
Based in Redwood City, California, the company has spent three years developing SurfWax as a tool to improve upon how current search directories and indexes harness and portray information from the fast-growing Web. The SurfWax website is: http://www.surfwax.com.

SurfWax, FocusWords, SiteSnaps, My Personal Searcher and ExtractSum are trademarks of VORT Corporation. VORT is a registered trademark of VORT Corporation.
Contact: Thomas D. Holt, VORT Corporation
Voice: 650-322-8282
Fax: 650-327-0747
Email: tdholt@vort.com