Byoms Search-Through-Chat Technology Now Supports All Major Chat Clients

July 31, 2006; 06:08 AM

kozoru announced that their byoms (build your own mobile search) technology is now available through Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, as well as services that use the Jabber/XMPP protocol, like Google Talk. This move allows Windows Live Messenger’s 225 million users, Yahoo! Messenger’s 60 million users, and the millions using Jabber, the ability to create and access byoms of their own.

Anyone can use byoms to create their own search engine for any possible chat application," said John S. Flowers, founder and CEO of kozoru. "Our customers have been asking for Windows Live, Yahoo! and Jabber support and we've listened to them, offering for the first time ever the ability to interact with chat in a way only previously imagined. With almost all phones now supporting either Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger or AOL Messenger (AIM), byoms makes it possible to search from a mobile phone in an intuitive way."

One example of an existing byoms feed that works across all services is the one trained against Wikipedia. Just enter the screen names below in the corresponding chat client, and start posing keyword queries or asking natural language questions.

AOL Instant Messenger:     byomsWikipedia
Windows Live Messenger:     byomsWikipedia @ hotmail.com
Yahoo! Messenger:               byomsWikipedia
Jabber/XMPP Clients:          byomsWikipedia @ byoms.com

"The byoms platform combines three vital, emerging marketplaces: instant messaging, social networking and mobile search," said Michael Farmer, Director of Strategic Partnerships for kozoru. "This new access for hundreds of millions of users is a big step towards adoption and signals a significant step towards a new platform in search through chat and mobile search in general."

About byoms
Byoms, which stands for "build your own mobile search," allows users to create personalized, search feeds from the sites they trust. Users then query and find targeted responses to their questions through a chat interface, via either a desktop client or chat-enabled mobile phone. Utilizing kozoru’s patent pending Natural Language Response™ algorithm to enhance relevance, users receive full-sentence responses to their queries, instead of thousands of snippet results. Currently, byoms leverages the industry leading chat clients AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, as well as those that support the Jabber/XMPP protocol, such as Google Talk. Users can find existing byoms or create a new feed at www.byoms.com.

About kozoru
kozoru, Inc. of Overland Park, Kansas has developed byoms, which stands for "build your own mobile search." The byoms search technology is built on an instant messaging platform and gives users the ability to ask questions or keywords of a search feed the user has preconfigured with their own authoritative web URLs. For more information about the company, visit www.kozoru.com.