Only a week left to win one of seven Apple iPods in the Seekport Homograph Challenge

  • Over 1,000 entrants already at www.seekport.co.uk
London, 22 June 2005 – Seekport, the innovative European search engine company, has already had over 1,000 entrants for its Homographic Challenge but is still looking for more homographs. To celebrate the launch of Seekport’s innovative homograph recognition on its www.seekport.co.uk search engine it is offering users the chance to win one of seven iPods.

Homographs – words with the exact same spelling but two different meanings – can confuse users, because the search results may point them in a completely unwanted direction. With the new homograph recognition capability, if a user enters a homographic word into the Seekport engine a list of possible interpretations is shown above the search results. For example, if a user enters the word ‘bow’, they will be asked if they are looking for violin bow, bow tie, ribbon bow or Bow London.

To take part in the Seekport Homograph Challenge, users will need to surf to www.seekport.co.uk and follow the instructions. First prize of an Apple iPod photo will be awarded to the entrant who submits the most homographs, second prize of an iPod mini will be awarded to the most unusual homograph as decided by Seekport’s UK index team, while additional prizes of iPod shuffles will be presented to five lucky winners who submit at least one homograph. Homographs that are already listed on the Seekport search engine will not be admissible.

“At Seekport, enhancing the quality and relevance of search returns is absolutely paramount and that is why we have integrated homographic recognition into our search engine,” commented Seekport’s Director of Quality Management, Stefan Karzauninkat. “The ability to ask the user exactly what they are searching for will obviously enable us to deliver results specifically tailored to the user’s requirements.”

“The homographic search gives Seekport a clear competitive advantage in the search engine market,” concluded Stefan Karzauninkat.

Other key factors behind Seekport’s quality-driven search engine approach include the pro-active removal of unsuitable and offensive content, a zero-tolerance approach to spam, and a commitment to enhancing country-specific searches with local index teams. For example, Seekport only searches websites that are UK-relevant, avoiding the typical problems that users find when they search US engines for place names that occur in both the UK and the US.

About Seekport Internet Technologies GmbH

The search engine technology provider Seekport Internet Technologies GmbH was set up in December 2003 with the goal of providing individualised search technologies for companies at the highest possible technical level, and establishing one of Europe’s leading Internet search engines. Seekport search technology features high quality of hits, thanks to innovative technologies and local index teams. This high quality benefits both the business partners of the company and the users, in their Internet searches. Seekport is currently online in Germany, France, the UK and Spain, with country-specific Internet search. By the end of 2005 Seekport will be active in nine different European countries. Seekport has the backing of strong shareholders, providing an optimal combination of commercial and technological resources.

For more information, please visit www.seekport.co.uk or contact:

Andy Gray
IBA, PR for Seekport UK
Tel: 01780 721433
agray@iba-europe.com