SANTA FE, N.M., April 12, 2010 — Deep Web Technologies has awarded nearly $2,000 in cash prizes to winners of the Federated Search Blog's (http://federatedsearchblog.com) second annual contest. Ken Varnum, Web Systems Manager at the University of Michigan Library, earned the top prize of $1,000. Additionally, Deep Web Technologies is sponsoring Ken's travel to the annual Computers in Libraries Conference where Ken will participate in a panel discussion today: Innovative Applications of Federated Search Technologies. Ken is also being recognized by Information Today, which is publishing his winning essay, "Project Lefty: More Bang for the Search Query," in its upcoming Searcher magazine.
Deep Web Technologies sponsored the Federated Search Blog contest to increase the awareness and interest in federated search. The blog asked participants to describe the most impressive federated search application they've ever seen or imagined. Deep Web Technologies awarded cash prizes to the top three winners: Ken Varnum, Hope Leman, and David Walker. Industry experts Abe Lederman, Todd Miller, Helen Mitchell, Richard Tong, and Walt Warnick judged the submissions.
Ken Varnum envisions adding a layer between the federated search systems and the user that incorporates personalization into the search experience. Personalization is divided into three components: determining the right databases to search, determining the right academic level of content to display, and automatically adjusting a user query to better yield relevant results. The personalization layer would ideally not involve any development work by the federated search application owners. It would, in the author's words, "improve results quietly, leading the researcher to better articles than they would find in an unassisted search."
Ken Varnum expressed his appreciation of winning the top prize: "I'm honored that 'Project Lefty' was selected as the winner of Deep Web Technologies' Federated Search contest. I look forward to sharing the project with my peers at Computers in Libraries 2010." Deep Web Technologies founder and president, Abe Lederman, expressed his commitment to advancing the state-of-the-art of federated search: "The contest exists to promote those who have great ideas about federated search. I'm delighted to reward those individuals who show federated search in the best light."
Learn more about the winning contest entries at http://federatedsearchblog.com/category/contest-winners-2009/.
About Deep Web Technologies
Deep Web Technologies creates custom, sophisticated federated search solutions for clients who demand precise, accurate results. Serving Fortune 500 companies, the Science.gov Alliance (http://www.science.gov), the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the Dept. of Defense, Scitopia.org ), Stanford University, Nutrition.gov, the WorldWideScience Alliance (http://www.worldwidescience.org) and a number of other diverse customers and partners, Deep Web Technologies has built a reputation as the "researcher's choice" for its advanced, agile information discovery tools.
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