March 10, 1997 10:00 AM ET
Ultraseek spins fast intranet Web searches
By Talila Baron

Ultraseek Server, a search engine for intranets and large public Web sites unveiled last month by Infoseek Corp., provides security, spidering capabilities and intelligent automation that keeps the index up-to-date while minimizing network traffic. The beta is available now at the company's Web site for free download. Infoseek officials in Santa Clara, Calif., expect the production rollout to coincide with Internet World in Los Angeles this week. "This search engine does intranet database indexing and manages all information from various local sites, which is what our [clients] needed," said Steve Cavin, an Ultraseek user and a consultant at Sun Microsystems Inc., in Palo Alto, Calif. "This also provides intelligent searches, so there's a lot of accuracy." Cavin added that Ultraseek Server is also extremely fast. "It's about 10 times faster than the nearest competitor and can handle very large volume," he said. The Infoseek Spider, which is at the core of the software, automatically calculates and adjusts each URL revisit frequency, based on how often the content changes. The revisit minimum, maximum and default frequencies are adjustable. The Infoseek Spider also automatically indexes just one copy of duplicate documents found in different locations, officials said. Ultraseek Server allows users to enter search criteria from a Web browser by keyword, phrase or question and bring back the relevant hits. Users can set Ultraseek Server to search on specific phrases and can require or reject specific words or phrases. Other accuracy features include stemming, fielded searches, case-sensitive or insensitive searches, and number recognition. In addition, the product can recognize specific documents that have been changed. Ultraseek Server also enables administrators to select a broad range of parameters, such as where the Infoseek Spider engine can or cannot go. In addition, the administrator can set passwords for protected sites that are part of the index and adjust how the Spider will update the index at regular intervals without intervention, officials said. The network administrator also can access Ultraseek Server's administration features remotely from any Web browser without having to deal with configuration files or command line sequences. Infoseek can be reached at (800) 781-4636 or www.infoseek.com. Copyright(c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Send mail to PC Week