Convera Corporation
Encyclopedia
Convera was formed in December 2000 by the merger of Intel's Interactive Services division and Excalibur Technologies Corporation. Until 2007, Convera's primary focus was the enterprise search market through its flagship
product, RetrievalWare
, which is widely used within the secure government sector in the US, UK, Canada
and a number of other countries. Convera sold its enterprise search business to FAST Search & Transfer
in August 2007 for $23 million, at which point RetrievalWare was officially retired. Microsoft Corporation
continues to maintain RetrievalWare for its existing customer base.
In February 2010, Convera Corporation merged with Firstlight ERA to become Vertical Search Workshttp://www.verticalsearchworks.com/, bringing with it its web-scale semantic search engine.
based company, which was an early pioneer of semantically enhanced search. This technology was adopted by parts of the US Government in the early 1990’s and was perhaps best known, in the public domain, for providing the Excalibur rapid rebuttal database that was successfully used by the UK Labour Party in their 1997 election campaign.
, Incisive Media, Lebhar-Friedman and Advanstar. Vertical search applications are usually presented under the publisher's brand and typically combine a mixture of public web data (selected by the publisher as being the best public content available on the subject), the publisher's proprietary content and private content provided by third parties.
, a New York
based investment bank. Allen & Company has been associated with Convera since its foundation in 2000 and was also a major shareholder in Excalibur Technologies for many years.
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
product, RetrievalWare
RetrievalWare
RetrievalWare is an enterprise search engine emphasizing natural language processing and semantic networks which was commercially available from 1992 to 2007 and is especially known for its use by government intelligence agencies.- History :...
, which is widely used within the secure government sector in the US, UK, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and a number of other countries. Convera sold its enterprise search business to FAST Search & Transfer
Fast Search & Transfer
Fast Search & Transfer ASA is a Norwegian company based in Oslo. FAST focuses on data search technologies. It also has offices located in Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, Mexico and other countries around the world. The company was founded...
in August 2007 for $23 million, at which point RetrievalWare was officially retired. Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
continues to maintain RetrievalWare for its existing customer base.
In February 2010, Convera Corporation merged with Firstlight ERA to become Vertical Search Workshttp://www.verticalsearchworks.com/, bringing with it its web-scale semantic search engine.
History
Excalibur Technologies had a history of search technology development dating back to the early 1980’s. Originally founded by Jim Dowe in 1980, Excalibur sought to exploit neural networks through Adaptive Pattern Recognition Processing (APRP). One of the applications of APRP was text retrieval, and it was found that the technology could provide a pattern matching search that was able to tolerate spelling variations and optical character recognition (OCR) processing errors over large volumes of scanned/OCR material. In 1995, Excalibur Technologies acquired ConQuest Technologies, a MarylandMaryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
based company, which was an early pioneer of semantically enhanced search. This technology was adopted by parts of the US Government in the early 1990’s and was perhaps best known, in the public domain, for providing the Excalibur rapid rebuttal database that was successfully used by the UK Labour Party in their 1997 election campaign.
Services
Convera Corporation is now providing software as a service (SaaS) vertical search services to publishers and other media companies. Publishers are using Convera's Web search platform to create customized search experiences for specialist audiences (e.g., SearchMedica, a property of United Business Media's CMPMedica division). Convera's vertical search services are used by many of the leading publishing companies, including John Wiley & Co., Centaur MediaCentaur Media
Centaur Media is a London-based business-to-business magazine and ditigal publishing group, formed in 1981, and incorporated as a public limited company. Flagship titles include Marketing Week, The Lawyer and Creative Review.-External links:*...
, Incisive Media, Lebhar-Friedman and Advanstar. Vertical search applications are usually presented under the publisher's brand and typically combine a mixture of public web data (selected by the publisher as being the best public content available on the subject), the publisher's proprietary content and private content provided by third parties.
Shareholders
A controlling interest in Convera was held by Allen & CompanyAllen & Company
Allen & Company is a boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York City.-History:Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he was soon joined by his brother, Herbert A. Allen, Sr...
, a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
based investment bank. Allen & Company has been associated with Convera since its foundation in 2000 and was also a major shareholder in Excalibur Technologies for many years.