Key Partnership Brings Times Online Readers Fully Integrated Desktop, Web and
Times Online Search
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- In an alliance that will change the
way hundreds of thousands of readers receive the news everyday, blinkx, the
smartest thing on your computer and on the Web, today launched its first
co-branded toolbar, Times Online Smart Search, in partnership with Times
Online, the website of The Times and The Sunday Times, two of Britain's most
well respected newspapers. Bringing the desktop, the Web and news from Times
Online together into one place, the Times Online Smart Search toolbar will
give Times Online readers a holistic view of their personal digital world and
Times and Sunday Times reports from around the globe.
Users will be able to download the customized Times Online toolbar from
http://www.timesonline.co.uk and take control of their desktop with blinkx's
unique desktop search capabilities, as well as receiving content from the
Times via an upgraded version of the standard blinkx News channel.
"We are pleased to offer this service to our readers," said Peter Bale,
Online Editorial Director of Times Online. "Search is a crucial part of the
web, and the blinkx desktop search is industry-leading technology. Times
Online Smart Search will give our readers a trusted source on their computers
to access Times Online, search other news sites and in its advanced form,
search the Net and their own PCs. We are initially offering the blinkx-powered
Times Online Smart Search on a beta basis and hope our readers will join with
us in this exciting new service."
Contextual News: your daily paper, delivered at the right time
Users who download the toolbar, Times Online Smart Search from
http://www.timesonline.co.uk, will be able to receive Contextual News, news which
relates specifically to content a user is viewing on their screen. Contextual
News enables users to benefit from truly personalized news delivery by
automatically linking users to news stories which relates to the information
they are interacting with on their desktop. As blinkx uniquely understands
the context of information, Times Smart Search will deliver the best of The
Times Online and The Sunday Times in real-time, as it relates to each
individual user. For example, a reader browsing web sites about the current
football season will be automatically linked to breaking news reports
featuring football heroes such as Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven
Gerrard as well as the latest match reports. Contextual News sets a new
precedent in the way users receive the news, allowing users to become their
own editors and control their own personal news agenda.
Smart Folders: a smarter start to your day
blinkx and Times Online will also introduce customized Smart Folders
-- intelligent folders which automatically update themselves with content
based on the focus of the folder as soon as it becomes available -- on a range
of popular topics including today's headlines, world news and sports coverage,
available for immediate download from http://www.timesonline.co.uk. Users will be
able to receive continual updates on the latest news, sports and lifestyle
content from Times Online by downloading these customized Smart Folders. For
example, users who download the dedicated Smart Folder for "Today's Headlines"
will automatically receive links to the top stories each day from Times
Online.
Suranga Chandratillake, blinkx CTO and Founder said, "Given the sheer
amount of content on the web, busy readers need all the help they can get to
make sure they stay up to date with things that matter to them and that they
get information from trusted, quality sources. While web-based newspaper
sites and RSS have helped us all stay more connected throughout the day, they
still depend on users explicitly and proactively expressing their interests.
blinkx's technology understands what you're interested in literally every
second of the day and we can use that to make sure you know what you need to
know -- even if you didn't know you had to know it! By its very nature, news
falls into this category -- news is only news as it's happening and so other
systems, such as RSS which require users to subscribe to specific feeds which
interest them, cannot automatically link readers to new breaking stories
unless the subject matches their predefined interests. Just as important as
speed and relevance, however, is quality, which is why we're extremely proud
to be working with Times Online. The Times is one of the world's oldest and
most respected sources of news and the Times Online has a long history of
innovation on the web; from our point of view a truly fantastic combination."
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 http://www.blinkx.com and http://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, http://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 http://www.blinkx.com.
SOURCE blinkx
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