blinkx Introduces Customizable Smart Folders Pioneered by 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and Shareable Smart Folders

blinkx Introduces Customizable Smart Folders Pioneered by 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and Shareable Smart Folders

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20/PRNewswire/ --

- Two New Varieties of Smart Folders Extend blinkx's Smart Folder Technology to Allow Communities and Groups to Find and Share Content From the Web, Their Desktops and Television

Building on the success of the world's first Smart Folders, launched in November 2004, blinkx, the smartest thing on your computer, today introduced two new varieties of Smart Folders. blinkx's enhanced Smart Folder technology works both with those who create content and those who are looking for it to help direct the right blinkx users to relevant content before they even ask.

The two new varieties of Smart Folders are Customizable Smart Folders for content providers, already in pioneering use as part of the launch build-up of the upcoming summer film from Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ( http://www.blinkx.com/h2g2/index.html ); and Shareable Smart Folders, which allow users to swap folders and the ideas contained within them with family and friends. Building on the original Smart Folder technology's unique ability to discover and organize desktop, Web and video content, these innovations allow Smart Folders to be used to strengthen online communities and sites and foster new, ad-hoc groups by supporting the straightforward and powerful sharing of information.

ABOUT SMART FOLDERS

blinkx's Smart Folders make organizing your way through information on the Web, desktop and television easier than it has ever been before. Based on example documents provided by a user, Smart Folders continually monitor multiple information sources and collect relevant content as soon as it becomes available. Matching based on the ideas contained within the content, rather than simple keywords, Smart Folders avoid the typical 'fire hose' experience associated with traditional alerting products. The new Smart Folders innovations continue blinkx's mission of changing the rules of finding information by offering its users an intuitive and proactive alternative to keyword search.

CUSTOMIZABLE SMART FOLDERS

Content providers and creators can now link to blinkx to make content from their websites available to users through dedicated Smart Folders, customized exclusively for their own sites. Pioneering content owners are joining the blinkx community and adding Smart Folders to their websites so that visitors can download Customized Smart Folders and receive continual updates from their sites. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" today became the first content owner to showcase blinkx's latest technological innovation by launching a special Smart Folder that will keep fans of the book up to date with developments around the upcoming movie release on April 29, 2005. Customizable Smart Folders are heavily configurable and will allow a wide range of content producers -- from major internet sites to niche bloggers -- to deliver their information more efficiently.

SHAREABLE SMART FOLDERS

Shareable Smart Folders allow existing blinkx users to share their ideas by sending folders to friends and family who share similar interests. An easy to use procedure shares the definition of a folder and the ideas it represents (rather than the content itself), providing for an extremely efficient sharing process where privacy is ensured to be maintained. Upon receiving a Shareable Smart Folder, existing blinkx users will be able to download the settings immediately and start receiving relevant content. New users will receive a personal invitation to join the blinkx community, and on completing the download, will be automatically linked to the tailor-made Smart Folders their contact has decided to share.

"When a movie based on a book as much loved as Hitchhikers is in the works, we know just how keenly awaited it is by fans all over the world. We're very excited to be working with blinkx as their Smart Folders technology is a great way for us to keep our fans in touch with progress in the build-up to the film's release," said Robbie Stamp, Executive Producer of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." "The straightforward distribution capability and simple to understand functionality make Customizable Smart Folders an idea platform for information and content delivery."

"blinkx is revolutionizing search by bringing information to the user's desktop, all without a single keystroke. The new Smart Folders eliminate the clumsy act of searching and allow users to focus on using the information," said blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake. "Our users and content providers alike can entirely change the way they find or distribute information. As we all get hungrier for a focused, tailor-made experience, we at blinkx are working hard to respond to that demand, improving and increasing the ways our users can receive unique links to personalized content. We're delighted to be working with Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on our Customizable Smart Folder program -- the project proves that blinkx's innovative technology has value even for major content owners. We've already seen significant interest from other prolific content owners and we expect to be making more Customizable Smart Folders available to users soon."

About Smart Folders

With Smart Folders, blinkx offers a comprehensive solution that enables PC and Mac users to index their hard drive, and search across the Web and their desktop simultaneously. Smart Folders are intelligent folders that automatically update their content as new information becomes available, based on the ideas contained within the content of those files. blinkx automatically delivers relevant information to users, without the need to search for it.

How To blinkx

blinkx thinks while it links. Because blinkx is not constrained by the limits of keyword-based technologies, it is able to extract the main ideas contained within any document and thus derive its meaning. blinkx uses patented Context Clustering Technology (CCT) to overcome the shortcomings of keyword technologies and to truly understand the ideas and context behind the words. blinkx applies its unique CCT ability to make the search experience faster, more accurate and more relevant. Approaches to searching through information using simple keyword query mechanisms fail because they do not provide enough context. In such cases users are overwhelmed by hundreds or thousands results, all of which match the query, but many that represent the different contexts within which the query term or terms can appear in. blinkx CCT is unique because it helps a user provide the context that is crucial to making keyword searching or organization -- it does not second-guess a user's needs, but seamlessly provides the automated guidance required to enrich the overall experience.

About blinkx

blinkx, the smartest thing on your computer and on the Web, is changing the way that people think about search. Only blinkx can harness the desktop, Web and TV -- unifying content with a one stop search tool. Available to users on the Web at www.blinkx.com and www.blinkx.tv, as well as free to download, blinkx automatically and intelligently links to content anywhere and in any format, on the Web, on the desktop and even on TV. blinkx's conceptual toolbar means users are no longer limited to keyword search; instead, blinkx assesses all the information that the user is actively viewing, and automatically recommends and retrieves relevant content, from local, Web and TV searches, based on context. In addition, www.blinkx.tv makes thousands of hours of TV content fully searchable and available on demand for the first time. blinkx is a privately-held company based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.

Web site: http://www.blinkx.com

Source: blinkx

Julia Blystone of OutCast Communications, +1-415-392-8282, or julia@outcastpr.com, for blinkx

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