Here is the text of an e-mail I just received from the company. I like the preamble to the news in this e-mail as I feel it provides a good background to the significance of the official press release.
If anyone is has not registered to receive these e-mail updates, I would highly recommend that you do this. The email address is at the bottom of this announcement.
Crazy Canuck
__________________________________
To: Crazy Canuck (actually it was my real name here, but I changed it to my SI name)
As someone registered to receive news from Net Shepherd, you will be interested in seeing the enclosed announcement of a technology partnership between ProfessorQ.com and Answers.com, our Pasadena-based Application Company.
The partnership gives Answers.com access to Natural Language Query technology, which will enable the company's technology to sensibly answer a greater proportion of customers' questions without the use of relatively expensive human assistance.
This further improves the economics and quality of the Answers.com product offerings to its commercial customers and will be a valuable asset to Answers.com's sales and marketing staff in their discussions with potential customers.
TEXT BEGINS:
Answers.com Announces Key Technology Partnership with ProfessorQPatent-Protected Natural Language Query Technology Delivers Complete and Meaningful Answers to Online Plain English Questions
PASADENA, Calif., April 25, 2000 - Answers.com, a leading provider of online question and answer services, today announced the signing of a license agreement with ProfessorQ.com.
Answers.com will utilize ProfessorQ.com's patented natural language search systems as a component of its existing product line to provide companies with accurate, relevant and timely responses to customer inquiries. ProfessorQ.com's Einstein Search EngineT includes a next generation context sensitive natural-language search engine and a set of automation utilities that will integrate with Answers.com's knowledge databases.
"Answers.com's products help businesses of all sizes ensure customers' questions are answered in the most efficient and relevant manner possible," explained J. Michael Morrison, President of Answers.com. "With ProfessorQ.com technology available to us, we can better enable customers to ask questions in plain English and receive even more complete and meaningful answers than ever before. Our products help companies achieve a better return on their customer service investment, which continues to be one of the biggest challenges for companies doing business online."
As a component of Answers.com's Answer Retrieval Technology, ProfessorQ.com's natural-language search engine will handle colloquial expressions and informal grammar used in the online interactive environment. Essentially, the technology can understand questions posed in everyday language and help enable Answers.com's products to respond with appropriate answers. The natural language technology works by parsing the questions and breaking them into grammatical components, much the way humans discern meaning. Answers.com currently offers one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways for businesses to answer customer questions through its proprietary Answer Retrieval Technology and AnswerBase. Questions can also be forwarded to a company's customer support experts for a personal response, which is then added to the AnswerBase for future inquiries.
"Answers.com and ProfessorQ.com have a shared commitment to providing break-through technological solutions to Web-based customer service," said Peter Tong, CEO of ProfessorQ.com. "The growing market requirement to rapidly and accurately understand customers' questions and respond correctly is best accomplished using natural-language search systems.
"Companies benefit from our Einstein Search EngineT because their customer service expenses can be reduced through more efficient and relevant replies. Also, companies can capture valuable customer information by profiling each customer's natural-language queries." Tong added, "Both Answers.com and ProfessorQ.com believe natural-language search systems are the wave of the future."
Answers.com
Answers.com is a provider of online customer service tools that help businesses of all sizes manage inquiry volume, minimize costs and maximize customer satisfaction. Established in 1996 by idealab!, Answers.com was recently acquired and relaunched by Canadian-based Net Shepherd, Inc. to target the business-to-business market. NSI is traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange under the symbol WEB.
ProfessorQ.com
San Jose, Calif.-based ProfessorQ.com is the leading provider of natural-language search systems for the Web. Its core technology is based on a suite of U.S. and worldwide patents on natural-language search.
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Regards,
Peter Hunt
Vice-President, Corporate Affairs
Net Shepherd Inc
900, 800 6th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3G3, Canada
Phone: (403) 218 8917
Fax: (403) 232 6711
E-mail: peter.hunt@netshepherd.com
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