PreFound.com Introduces New "Equalizer" Search Tool

Users Can ''Tune'' Search Results Based on Their Personal Interests

WebKnowHow
Monday, August 21, 2006; 08:45 AM

PreFound.com (www.prefound.com), a community-oriented search engine that lets people find, tag and share information including multimedia such as video, MP3 files, and podcasts, introduced the Social Search Equalizer, a tool that gives users the ability to fine tune Web searches based on their personal interests and background.

PreFound.com users simply enter a zip code (if they want to receive local-specific results) and labels that describe up to four topics of interest into the Social Search Equalizer (SSE). Users are then asked to enter additional keywords associated with those interests to further narrow the results. For each search thereafter the settings on the Equalizer can be adjusted up or down to deliver results based more or less on the user's specific interests. Using the PreFound SSE is like adjusting the settings of a stereo equalizer; rather than adjusting the elements of music, the SSE influences the level of personal interests affecting Web search results--less influence returns more "Google"-like keyword-based results; more influence tailors results to the user's specific interests.

"The Social Search Equalizer provides PreFound searchers with an effective way to personalize and tailor their search results according to specific, declared interests," said Steve Mansfield, CEO of iLOR LLC, and PreFound.com. "We've taken search to an entirely new level of detail with this tool. The SSE marks a milestone toward reaching the search industry's end-goal of providing users with the most targeted and relevant search results possible."

Personalizing your searches on PreFound.com is as easy as declaring what subjects interest you; the SSE handles all the filtering of results to deliver only the most relevant answers to your query. With the SSE, interest-specific keywords are controlled by the user and can be changed as much, as little and whenever he or she decides to alter them in order to incorporate their own interests into the search result set.

"PreFound.com provides search that's of the people, by the people and for the people," said Mansfield. "We are happy to give our users search results that reflect who they are and what specifically interests them. The SSE will make it possible to extend social networking into social search."

Use of the Social Search Equalizer is free on the PreFound.com site. No downloads or installations are necessary.