Google buys student's search tool

An advanced search engine tool being developed by an Australian IT student has been snapped up by Google, in a deal said to be worth millions of dollars.



Ori Allon of the University of South Wales has sold his invention to the internet giant, which has hired him to complete its development over the next 18 months.



Codenamed Orion, the search tool, or superior text algorithm, complements existing search engines by improving the relevance of textual results.



The Sydney Morning Herald said the "problem-solving computational procedure" finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the keyword.



The tool then returns a section of the page, and lists other topics related to the keyword, empowering the user to pick the most relevant.



Similar to the Clusty search engine, sometimes these pages are important to the topic, other times they are not.



For each keyword search run, the user is given the choice whether they wish to visit the page or simply view it as an extract.



Last year, Microsoft founder Bill Gates implied such a development could make a vital difference in bridging the gap between expectations and actual capabilities of search technology.



Yahoo! and the world's largest software maker are both said to have recently held talks with Allon's University before a deal, thought to be in its millions, was finally struck with Google.



Commenting on the dominant search engine, Gates has said that "users shouldn't have to click on all those links and have this treasure hunt," to find the information they want.



The "computer ought to know what you're asking for and bring that to you, it ought to understand your background, your interests, things you've done in the past, and literally be about very direct answers coming to you."



Speaking in October, Gates said search users receive the desired answers about 10 per cent of the time, but vowed, "within the next couple of years we can drive that up to 90 per cent."



Meanwhile, Allon has hinted that waiting time may no longer be necessary, as Orion could fulfill both industry and user expectations alike.



"By displaying results to other associated key words directly related to your search topic, you gain additional pertinent information that you might not have originally conceived, thus offering an expert search without having an expert's knowledge.



"Take a search such as the American Revolution as an example of how the system works," Allon said in September.



"Orion would bring up results with extracts containing this phrase. But it would also give results for American History, George Washington, American Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, Boston Tea Party and more. You obtain much more valuable information from every search."



Andrew Stead of New South Innovations, the technology transfer company within the University, has said he is " confident " Orion can fill the gap in the market noted by Bill Gates.



This week, Stead reportedly confirmed Allon left Australia six weeks ago and was now working at Googleplex as a permanent staff member.