Wordmap today announced the availability of Wordmap Navigator, a software product that adds a sophisticated, "yellow pages" style interface to any website or information application, allowing users to browse information as well as search by keyword. Wordmap Navigator shows the context of the information and relevant cross-references, as well as clarifying the language most commonly used when trying to locate specific information. Wordmap Navigator is shipped with its own searchable content repository.
"The major analysts are clear that search alone is not enough," said Bill Hutchison, CEO of Wordmap. "Successful information access depends on the taxonomies that underpin navigation. Until now, complex navigation has only appeared on a tiny minority of top end sites. We'd like to change that, by giving a much wider range of site owners the opportunity to build and publish taxonomies.
Until now, sophisticated navigation has only appeared on a small number of top end web sites because it has required extensive hand coding by experts. Taxonomy tools have been available, but have required complex integration with search and web content management systems.
"Wordmap Navigator requires no integration at all," says Hutchison. "Within Wordmap, customers can design taxonomies and publish them to the web - and even upload and classify pages. But if integration is required, a full set of documented web services APIs are provided to make the process simple."
Among Wordmap Navigator core navigation features:
- Finished taxonomies are published as "yellow pages" style directories
- Results pages feature sidebars which include narrower categories and related links
- User search terms are clarified - for example a search for "Lotus" would ask whether the user was looking for software, sports cars or yoga
- Pre-defined taxonomies such as UNSPSC or IPSV can be pre-loaded
- Breadcrumb trail shows user’s place in the directory
- Results from content repository can be filtered by attribute - e.g size, price, author etc.
- Directory links that retrieves categorised documents
Wordmap Navigator is used by enterprises and government organizations to improve access to information for customer service, sales, marketing and other information rich applications.
Pricing and Availability
Wordmap Navigator is generally available. Pricing starts at £25,000 per CPU.
Wordmap Navigator is just one in the range of Wordmap’s enterprise software products that can be used standalone or in conjunction with enterprise search, content, document or records management systems, helping organisations to improve the precision of information access and its underlying control.