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Through IOL and oceanfree.net, Internet users will be able to carry out precise, Ireland-only searches as well as searching the entire World Wide Web, said Esat.
Andrew Conlan-Trant, director of marketing and products for Esat Fusion said Esat was excited to have an Ireland-only search utility designed by a company that "many consider the best search engine on the Internet."
This new offering from Google and Esat differs from Yahoo and other search engines because it searches for Web sites that relate to Ireland only, according to Don Cronin, applications manager for Esat Fusion. Yahoo offers searches specific to Ireland and the UK, but this means that the information requested may relate to the UK as well as or even instead of Ireland, explained Cronin.
He said as part of the deal, Google compiled a massive database of Irish Web sites as well as some sites that may be Ireland-related but not Irish themselves.
The new search facility includes a similar page feature, allowing users to access sites that are highly relevant to sites found during the original search.
This facility is particularly useful for specific searches, since it searches for pages within the same category as the original search, said Cronin.
In addition, a cache page feature stores Web pages containing information that may be either out of date or no longer available. Under this system, all Web pages are stored by Esat and Google, with the result that no information is ever lost, explained Cronin. So far, some 1.2 billion Web pages have been stored for this facility.
"Searches will become even more accurate as the Internet grows," said Cronin. "Sites are graded according to the number of other sites linked to them."
Another facility allows users to search for any Web page using a WAP-enabled mobile phone.
At present, WAP phones can only search sites that are WAP-specific. However, under the new system there will be no restrictions, explained Cronin.
Other features include an advanced search facility, the ability to search by domain name and to ask the search engine a question in the user's own words.
In April 2001, Google was named the number one US search engine by Internet marketing company Juniper Media Metrix. In addition, Google has recently agreed to deals with companies such as Vodafone in the UK and NTT DoCoMo in Japan to provide its search capabilities to international desktop and wireless users in a move to attract more international users.
The company has also made other moves recently to find a foothold in non-US markets including the opening its first overseas offices for advertising in the UK, Germany and Japan.
Investment bankers believe that Google's revenues could reach USD50 million in 2002 and that the company could achieve a market capitalisation of USD250 million, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Esat Fusion is at www.esatfusion.ie and Google is at www.google.com
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