Ask Jeeves Co-Founder and Former CTO Joins Answerbag
12 Juni 2006 - 3:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Search Visionary David Warthen Brings Advanced Question and Answer
Expertise LOS ANGELES, June 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Answerbag,
a division of InfoSearch Media, Inc. (OTC:ISHM.OB) (BULLETIN BOARD:
ISHM.OB) , today announced that Ask Jeeves' co-founder, former CTO
and natural-language expert David Warthen has joined as Executive
Vice President to focus on advanced question answering and search
systems. Populated with information on a wide-variety of topics,
Answerbag is a highly accurate and trusted online social question
and answer community. "David was the visionary and driving force
behind the advanced lab of people-based question and answering at
Ask Jeeves. At Answerbag, he has the unique opportunity to combine
early pioneering work with fresh innovations, based on Web 2.0
principles," said George Lichter, CEO of InfoSearch Media. "I am
exceptionally pleased to be working with David again, and I feel
confident that his fluency in technology, innovation and
fundamental belief that people, not machines, possess the unique
quality of judgment will provide Answerbag with the key advantage
in taking search to the next level." As an independent social
question and answer site, Answerbag has established a reputation as
a trustworthy collection of information created by people who have
experience and knowledge to share with people looking for direct
answers to their questions. Unlike competitors, including Yahoo!
Answers, Answerbag builds trust by rewarding its users only for
providing high quality answers. "The next major step in the
evolution of search unlocks the power of people providing judgment
and collective wisdom, rather than simply introducing algorithms of
increasing complexity," said David Warthen. "For more than three
years, Answerbag has been a dynamic force in furthering social
Q&A, and I am excited to help extend this lead to provide
social Q&A infrastructure for the entire Web." Mr. Warthen has
been at the forefront of developing innovative software
technologies for more than 20 years. As CTO and co-founder of Ask
Jeeves, Mr. Warthen created a unique "people-oriented" approach to
information retrieval, which helped redefine the search engine
landscape and positioned Ask Jeeves as the leader in the Question
Answering category. After his tenure at Ask Jeeves, Mr. Warthen
founded the innovative Web cam video game company Eye Games
(http://www.eyegames.com/), and has served on several Board of
Directors, including the question-answering technology company
kozoru (http://www.kozoru.com/), which provides personalized
instant messaging search. At Answerbag, Mr. Warthen will focus on
developing Answerbag's information architecture and enhancing
Answerbag's question answering technology and social search
systems. "As algorithmic search became more prevalent, many of the
early insights regarding people-based question and answering went
unused. Through the pioneering efforts of sites like Naver in
Korea, Answerbag in the U.S. and more recently Yahoo! Answers,
people are once again a big part of the future of search,"
continued Lichter. "With David's help, we plan to tap those early
insights to drive search and online social interaction even
further." About InfoSearch Media InfoSearch Media
(http://www.infosearchmedia.com/) is a leading provider of content
based cost-effective search engine marketing services through its
ContentLogic product group and operates numerous content-based
websites, including Answerbag.com, under its Web Properties product
group. For ContentLogic, InfoSearch Media maintains a network of
over 200 professional writers that help businesses succeed on the
Web by implementing content-based solutions that simultaneously
increase online search engine rankings and Web site sales
performance. Answerbag.com has grown to approximately 1,000,000
unique users per month up from 500,000 at the beginning of the
year. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results
may differ materially from expectations discussed in such
forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such
differences include, but are not limited to the challenges of
attracting new customers and maintaining existing customers and
developing, deploying and delivering InfoSearch services;
competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to
generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay
new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business
from our key customers and other risks described from time to time
in InfoSearch's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. In particular, see InfoSearch's recent quarterly and
annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
copies of which are available upon request from InfoSearch.
InfoSearch does not assume any obligation to update the
forward-looking information contained in this press release.
DATASOURCE: InfoSearch Media, Inc. CONTACT: Mel Bolton of Dotted
Line Communications, +1-510-704-0870, or Web site:
http://www.infosearchmedia.com/
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