Crystal Semantics, has announced the launch of a linguistics-based technology designed to enhance the search capabilities of ecommerce sites. Textonomy Deduce uses the structure and sense of the words contained in a search to increase the chances of Web site visitors finding the products they want within a Web site's catalogue. Textonomy Deduce provides a database which includes such variations as British and American English ('cellphone' vs 'mobile phone'), singulars and plurals ('cellphone' vs 'cellphones'), variations of spelling and spacing ('cellphone' vs 'cell phone'), and colloquial descriptions ('mobiles'). By adding semantic categories, Textonomy Deduce is also designed to handle ambiguity. In cases where a store does not have a particular product, the system guides the enquirer to related products within the same product range.
(www.crystalsemantics.com)