Exalead CloudView Selected As Platform For New 'Social Search' Service.

Social search website AskPeopleYouKnow.com benefits from Exalead technology.

Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), today announced that its subsidiary Exalead, a global provider of search-based applications (SBA) technology, has been selected by AskPeopleYouKnow.com, a brand new 'social search' service conceived and launched by Aubert Park Ventures. The website makes use of Exalead's leading search technology - from its ability to search and refine millions of items, to enable people to search questions asked and answered, to find other users' profiles, and to provide traditional web results.

"When we were conceiving and developing the service, we realised that the majority of people find information via search - not just browsing. A search capability was, therefore, essential to the site's success," said David Gilbey, Managing Director Aubert Park Ventures. "We took a collaborative approach to the project, to work with specialists in their field, which would allow us to concentrate on the things we were best at – making sure the website met both consumer and commercial needs."

AskPeopleYouKnow.com is a new 'social search' service with which users can tap into the wisdom of their trusted networks to obtain answers to questions, or search for advice and recommendations. As in real life, AskPeopleYouKnow.com enables friends to recommend friends to answer questions and solve problems. It is designed to be as easily understood and as appealing to millions of mainstream users as Facebook is to a youth audience – only more useful.

"A Nielsen Study revealed that 90% of people rate the people they know as their most trusted source of information," explained Gilbey. "AskPeopleYouKnow.com simply combines search with the knowledge of people's trusted networks to enable people to benefit from the collective knowledge and experience of their trusted network of contacts – just as people have done for hundreds of years, only quicker and easier."

With an exciting concept in place, and the backing of investors such as Peter Bazalgette (former global Endemol creative director), Gilbey and Mike Clowes, both previously responsible for AOL's consumer business in the UK as Vice President and Editorial Director respectively, decided that outsourcing the site's underlying search capabilities was the right approach.

"As well as the quality of the product and competitive commercial terms, there were a number of other factors that we needed to satisfy," said Gilbey. "We were looking for a company that was open-minded, creative and flexible, that would provide a good partnership to help develop the business. On that basis, Exalead was the company we decided to work with."

Exalead's technology has also been applied to help AskPeopleYouKnow.com to provide dynamic filtering and to help maintain the levels of performance needed for the website's initial growth. As well as powering all the search elements on the site, Exalead also provides web search results to the site to extend its reach. The search results use Exalead's own eight billion-page Web index, providing results in an easy-to-navigate and structured format.