A better search engine?

By Fred O. Williams
The Buffalo News

April 23, 2002 - Buffalo, New York -- Microlanguage's technology analyzes words in context.

Robert Fritzinger sold his last software company to Intel Corp.

Now his new one, Microlanguage LLC in Amherst, is on an expansion path as it designs text-search technology for homeland defense and other applications.

"The problem with current (search) technology is, you get back all this irrelevant data," Fritzinger said. For example, when intelligence analysts search for the word "bomb" in materials they've stockpiled, "they're getting back movie reviews, because the movie was a bomb," he said. "This filters out all the junk data."

With four people at its location in the University at Buffalo Incubator, Microlanguage plans to invest $2.2 million over three years to develop search engines for government and commercial databanks. The money will come from government grants, private investors and from operating income.

The year-old software company is eligible for a $100,000 state grant if it hits its target of creating 53 jobs in three years, Gov. George E. Pataki's office announced Wednesday. The grant will be paid over time as the company achieves hiring goals, said Michael Marr, spokesman for the Empire State Development Corp.

Microlanguage's search technology uses linguistic techniques to analyze words in context. Such "natural language processing" techniques yield more accurate results than plain keyword searches, Fritzinger said.

The company licenses its technology to service providers that bundle it with other products for end users, Fritzinger said. Among its clients is Science Applications International Corp., a $6 billion technology services company in San Diego.

Sales are expected to generate $3 million this year and $9 million in 2003, he said. The core search technology came from a predecessor called Bard, whose founder Brian R. Grom is now Microlanguage's chief technology officer.

Fritzinger was one of three co-founders of Voice Technologies Group, an info-tech company that was bought by Intel Corp. in 2000 and renamed Dialogic.

A combination of linguistics and computer science expertise at UB make Buffalo a spawning ground for companies developing natural language processing search technology, Fritzinger said. An Amherst company called Cymfony, founded in 1995, also designs search software for government and businesses.