While we’re still busy working on a new set of features for eyePlorer.com, a new version of the application was released today. It mainly contains several bug fixes, most of which had been reported by our users – thanks a lot for your help! And keep sending in those feature requests and also bug reports, should you happen to find any.

Die visuelle Wissensmaschine eyePlorer.com wird mit dem SuMa Award 2009 in der Kategorie Suchmaschinentechnologie ausgezeichnet.

Die vionto GmbH mit ihrer grafischen Wissensmaschine eyePlorer.com wird vom SuMa e.V. und dem Bundesverband deutscher Internetportale (BDIP) mit dem Suchmaschinen-Award in der Kategorie Suchmaschinentechnologie geehrt. Der mit 2500 Euro dotierte SuMa Award ist ein Förderpreis für den freien Wissenszugang im Internet. Die prestigeträchtige Auszeichnung wird an Arbeiten oder Projekte verliehen, die praktische oder theoretische Aufgabenstellungen, Lösungen oder Probleme im Umgang mit dem digitalen Weltwissen aufgreifen. Die Qualität des Preises wird durch die große fachliche Kompetenz einer Jury, bestehend aus Mitgliedern des SuMa e.V. gewährleistet. Die Verleihung erfolgt im Rahmen des SuMa e.V. Kongresses, der am 10. September 2009 in der niedersächsischen Landesvertretung Berlin stattfindet.

Für die Fachjury stand der freie und effektive Zugang zu digitalem Wissen bei ihrer Bewertung im Mittelpunkt. „Wesentlich ist es, dass wir nicht bei der Technologie – die durchaus wichtig ist – stehen bleiben, sondern die Wirkung der digitalen Informationsströme auf die globale Wissensgesellschaft insgesamt bewerten“, so Dr. Wolfgang Sander-Beuermann, Geschäftsführer des SuMa e.V. Auf Grund dieser Kriterien hat sich die Jury für eyePlorer.com als Gewinner im Bereich Suchmaschinentechnologie entschieden.

„eyePlorer.com verfolgt eine andere Strategie als die bekannten großen Suchmaschinen. Dass dieser Ansatz nun mit dem wichtigsten deutschen Suchmaschinen-Award gewürdigt wird, freut uns natürlich sehr und macht das gesamte Team von vionto überglücklich. Die Suchmaschine von Morgen ist eine Wissensmaschine die nicht nur Informationen liefert, sondern die Informationen für die Nutzer aufbereitet und die Ergebnisse visuell darstellt“, erklärt der Hirnforscher und Geschäftsführer der vionto GmbH Dr. Martin Hirsch. „Dieser fantastische Preis bekräftigt unser Vorhaben und treibt uns zusätzlich an, eyePlorer.com weiter zu entwickeln und den eingeschlagenen Weg konsequent weiter zu verfolgen.“

Gleichzeitig zum Gewinn des SuMa Awards erscheint eine weiterentwickelte Version von eyePlorer.com. Die neue Version enthält einige hochinteressante Funktionen. Neben einer verbesserten Optik wurden hilfreiche Features eingebaut, um die Suche nach Informationen weiter zu verbessern und auszubauen. Zusätzlich zu den bekannten Fakten und Relationen werden nun im Info-Fenster auch Web- und twitter-Ergebnisse, sowie Bilder zu den Suchbegriffen angezeigt. Ein weiteres Highlight ist der neue Wikipedia-Reader. Mit einem simplen Klick können Nutzer nun zwischen der Darstellung von Konzepten und semantischen Beziehungen auf der Scheibe und dem Wikipedia-Artikel zum jeweiligen Suchbegriff hin und her wechseln.

Testen Sie den Preisträger mit seinen neuen Funktionen unter http://eyePlorer.com

Today we released a new version of our graphical knowledge engine eyePlorer.com. This new release, codename “flyspot”, features a radar view whose size we increased significantly so that users with rather small displays can make best possible use of the application.

The new release of eyePlorer.com, codename "flyspot"

We also improved the layout algorithm, the font size handling and the category colours to bring even more visual appeal to eyePloring knowledge. Another handy feature is available in the upper right hand corner of the radar view: using the inner search you can filter the set of concept names to only those that match a certain pattern (such as “museum” on the “Berlin” eyeMap). Several interface controls which used to be available directly can now be found behind the “View” menu: the number of concepts (from 20 to 500), language (English or German), the “show facts after mouseclick” checkbox with which you can disable the mouseover popup windows and a function to disable the tips and hints which are displayed below the radar view.

We also improved the notepad: a new “Settings” tab enables users to change the font-size as well as the password. Furthermore, you can finally add your individual notes in addition to the facts, concepts and categories that you collect on the notepad. The knowledge base which you can access using eyePlorer.com was also expanded significantly.

We hope you like the new version! Feel free to tell us what you think of the new release in the comments.

If you enjoy using eyePlorer.com we would like to invite you to become a fan on our facebook page. You can also follow us on twitter.

The current issue of MACup magazine has an article titled Die Nadel im Heuhaufen (p. 70-73) which presents several alternative search engines. Apart from Bing, Google Squared and Wolfram Alpha the author mentions eyePlorer.com which he calls “revolutionary”.

The new issue of de:bug magazine (July/August 2009) published an article about knowledge machines: Wissensmaschinen erklären die Datenwelt (German only). This very interesting short piece is accompanied by an interview with our CEO Martin Hirsch: Nach Google – eyePlorer & Wolfram Alpha.

Spiegel Online published an interesting article about search engines and current technology trends: Ballmers Bing bringt den Markt in Bewegung (German only). In addition to Google, Bing, Wolfram Alpha and other services, the article also mentions eyePlorer.com and calls it “one of the most exciting search engines of recent years”.

eco Internet Award

The Association of the German Internet Industry (eco) awarded vionto GmbH with one of the most prestigious prizes of the German internet sector. vionto’s graphical knowledge engine eyePlorer.com won the esteemed “Internet Oscar” in the category Web Portal. The high quality of the award is guaranteed by an independent jury that consisted of renowned experts from the IT industry, journalism, and academia. The award ceremony took place on June 18, 2009, at the eco gala in Cologne, Germany.

The company behind eyePlorer.com is vionto GmbH which is based in Berlin, Germany. vionto was founded in December 2008 and has the goal of acquiring a leading position in the emerging market of knowledge engines.

eco Internet Award ceremony

“This award demonstrates the ambitions vionto has with eyePlorer.com and shows that knowledge machines will play an important role in the future”, says Dr. Martin Hirsch, CEO of vionto GmbH and leading brain behind eyePlorer.com. “We are very happy to win the eco. It indicates that we are right on track. A knowledge engine that aims at being an efficient, inspiring and also challenging brainstorming partner needs to have an intuitive graphical interface.”

Today we released a new version of our graphical knowledge engine eyePlorer.com. Numerous new features and an improved user interface provide a much more comfortable user experience. The completely revamped front page guarantees direct access to knowledge and information, depending on the users’ needs.

The new release of eyePlorer.com, codename "pokerface"

New graphical elements improve the way relations between concepts are displayed in eyePlorer.com. A direct relation between two search terms is now highlighted visually. The new release – codename “pokerface” – upgrades eyePlorer.com with a bunch of new functions which make eyePloring a lot easier. Open windows and dialog boxes can now, for example, be closed with the escape key – this function was requested by many users. Useful hints explain advanced features of the user interface. Experienced users can disable these hints using a checkbox.

Furthermore, the language technology-based text analysis techniques have been expanded significantly to provide users with an even bigger knowledge base they can eyePlore.

We hope you enjoy the new version! Feel free to tell us what you think of the new release in the comments.

The eco Association of the German Internet Industry awards, for the ninth time, the prestigious eco Internet Award to innovative German internet companies. Out of 250 applications, the graphical knowledge engine eyePlorer.com has been nominated for the eco Internet Award in the category Web Portal by a jury that consists of highly esteemed experts from the IT industry, journalism, and academia. Well-known companies such as, for example, Adobe Solutions GmbH, Strato AG or Kabel Deutschland GmbH won the award in previous years. The award ceremony will be held in conjunction with the eco Gala in Cologne, Germany, on June 18th 2009.

eyePlorer.com nominated for eco Internet Award 2009

eyePlorer.com is a graphical knowledge engine. Its knowledge base contains more than 160 million facts and is created fully automatically using sophisticated text and language analysis techniques. This knowledge base enables eyePlorer.com to associate and present terms, concepts and persons with regard to the word or phrase searched by the user. These related words and terms are presented in a visual and highly interactive graphical display. When you move the mouse pointer over a related term, the relation is explained with short text segments that can be worked with interactively. Search topics can be combined to show common relations and shared relevant terms in a fast and simple manner. eyePlorer.com is an automatic brainstorming assistant and especially supports creative knowledge workers in agencies, but also the daily work of journalists, pupils, students and academics.

More than 100,000 users have explored knowledge with the graphical knowledge engine eyePlorer.com since its launch in March 2009. The latest version is a significant leap forward. The knowledge machine now contains more than 150 million facts and has a new speciality: it helps you discover relations.

“Have you ever tried, literally, to compare apples and oranges with Google or Wikipedia? With eyePlorer.com this task is a piece of cake.”, says CIO Dr. Christian Giertler. “Moreover, it’s very interesting. Or did you know that both are used for Sangria and may carry the International Fairtrade Certification Mark? You probably know that both grow on trees, but did you know that both are used as an aroma compound and both are a source of pectin? There is no other search engine available online that makes it so easy to discover relations and that is, at the same time, as inspiring as eyePlorer.com.”

The notepad was also extended with several new features: now it enables you to collect and structure your notes and information on multiple pages. You can move facts around, insert headlines, sort and delete information as well as collapse individual sections. “Especially creative people, pupils, students and also researchers, scientists and scholars will appreciate these new features”, Giertler says.

The new version is available free of charge at http://eyePlorer.com.

About vionto GmbH

vionto GmbH develops knowledge machines. Our approach is inspired by current research results from cognitive science, computational linguistics and neurobiology. We aim at radically improving the way users interact with knowledge and information online. vionto GmbH is based in Berlin. The company was founded in 2008 and is funded using venture capital.

For more information please contact us via press@vionto.com.