Intellext, a software company, has announced the general availability of Watson 2.0. The latest downloadable version of Watson lets users select their favorite information sources and see the results that Watson retrieves in a desktop sidebar. Watson's sidebar display is continuously updated with real-time information designed to be relevant to the work being done at any moment.

New features added during the Watson 2.0 beta program include: a Sidebar Display, designed to give users an instant snapshot of information pertinent to their work; Information Source Wizard, designed to help users specify their preferred sources of information, including premium news sites, corporate intranets, favorite Web sites and paid research sources. Information Groups can also be created to organize information into categories such as Web, News, Blogs, Research, and more. Watson 2.0 can also be connected to any enterprise search or intranet platform; the ability for users to connect to more desktop search applications (MSN, X1, and Google) and interfaces with research services (IDC, HighBeam Research, Gartner Group, and Forrester Research); the ability for users to refine their displayed results by using keywords for specific contexts, highlighting text to focus results on a selected topic; and integration with the Firefox Web browser, in addition to Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, and Internet Explorer. A free trial of Watson can be downloaded at the Web site.

(www.intellext.com)