Information on Endeca's ProFind and Medialab Solution's Aquabrowser

Aquabrowser Library- Medialab Solutions:

• Ability for patron to Search, Discover & Refine
• Results are ranked by relevance
• Search interface locates results using associations, context and spelling alternatives generated from a library's OPAC based on search query
• Compares search terms to metadata in catalog
• Creates a visual "word cloud" which creates "suggestions for patrons to discover new information and help them formulate a query." Includes most relevant associations, foreign language translations, spelling variants and synonyms. Taken from http://www.medialab.nl/index.asp?page=aquabrowserlibrary/overview (July 29, 2006).
• Refine options: Patrons can refine their search results by limiting the results based on format, subject, author, category or genre.

Endeca's ProFind Platform - Endeca

• From Andrew K. Pace's My Kingdom for a OPAC article in the February 2005 issue of American Libraries. Available via American Libraries Online. Endeca creates "muti-relational" index where results are refined on the fly to match patron limits. Has fast searching with guided navigation.
• From NCSU's press release - Endeca platform uses information retreival scheme whic integrated searching and browsing. This combinationis meant to allow people to continually define and adapt their search strategies based on their own determination of relevancy. Contains a dynamic navigation scheme.