Press Release

Interpix Introduces Enhanced Visual Search Engine That Uses Text, Pictures To Locate SitesSANTA CLARA, CA -- September 27, 1996 -- Internet surfing just got easier with the introduction of Interpix Software Corporation's Image Surfer (http://isurf.interpix.com), a new tool available on the Internet which utilizes both key words and categories as its search criteria while displaying search results as pictures. Expanding its previous version, the new Image Surfer now adds a text-based search feature to its unique visual search engine, and will be a featured link on the new Infoseek Ultra service (http://ultra.infoseek.comhttp://ultra.infoseek.com) as well as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), where the original image-only search technology made its debut.

On the Image Surfer Web site, users can type in key words or pick a particularly image-rich category such as "Cars," "Supermodels" or "Animation." Pictures from Web sites within the corresponding choice are displayed as "thumbnail" images (i.e. smaller versions of the actual pictures that take seconds to download) which offer a preview of what is contained on each page. Clicking on a thumbnail image will automatically access the Web site where that image is located. In addition to searching within the general categories, keywords can now be entered to find a collection of pictures for a specific subject.

"Image Surfer's enhancement of the current Internet search process provides a unique solution for users interested in image-intensive Web browsing," said Michael T. Heylin, senior associate for San Francisco-based Creative Strategies Consulting. "Research indicates that there is the potential for Image Surfer to expand search capabilities of the Internet and enhance Intranet capabilities. Fields such as art, digital video and graphic design will benefit from a database indexed with images."

The thumbnails are drawn from a database of Web sites compiled by Interpix' "ISpi" technology, a Web crawler which uses a user-definable criteria to search the Web. ISpi is used by Interpix to explore the Internet and find new images and sites to increase its Image Surfer database. Hitachi Business International, Japan, licenses this technology for its Japanese text search site Hole-in-One (www.hole-in-one.com).

Interpix CEO David Steele stressed that Image Surfer is not an image archive. "Search engines have traditionally worked exclusively with text. Although we have moved away from a strictly text-driven engine and incorporated pictures into our product's fundamental design, Image Surfer is an image-based navigation tool, not a photo gallery," said Steele. "Image Surfer leads users to sites by using pictures to determine areas of interest. It combines the accuracy of key word searches with images to create a more practical way for users to find sites of interest."

About Interpix
Interpix Software, Santa Clara, Calif., develops technologies and services for collecting, managing, indexing and presenting multimedia data on the Internet. Interpix has four areas of technology to be applied to state-of-the-art customer applications: "ISpi," a general purpose Web crawler for processing images and text. A technology for quickly developing interactive image catalogs on the Web, as seen in Image Surfer. Multimedia data management for large image intensive sites or sets of sites. Analysis technology and pattern recognition techniques for processing images automatically. Interpix can be reached at (408) 247-0731, info@interpix.com, http://www.interpix.com.

 

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Terri Foos
McGrath/Power Public Relations
(408) 727-0351