CSIRO Sells Funnelback search engine

The premium Australian Government research body has sold its Funnelback search engine to privately-owned open source content management system developer Squiz.

The price tag for the sale was not disclosed. Sadly, the costs to government so far and any losses are likely to not be publicly disclosed.

The search engine, which started life as 'P@noptic' before being syphoned away to a separate company called Funnelback in 2006, is an "industrial strength" enterprise search product.

It boasts the ability to search across content "assets" like the internet, intranet, databases, shared network drives, and electronic document management and portal systems. While at times some security issues have been prominent, these have not appeared to be as problematic over the past two years.

The project was initally jointly developed by the CSIRO and the Australian National University.

Funnelback counts the Australian Securities Exchange, Oxfam, Westpac, the ABC ( www.abc.net.au ), and various "Australian state and federal government departments" among its customer base, as does its new owner.

"We have a great many customers in common so it makes sense to bring the two organisations closer together," Squiz co-founder John-Paul Syriatowicz said. The aim of the search engine is to link open government and public information with relevant internet search queries.

The new Board will include Funnelback managing director Brett Matson and executive director Stuart Beil, as well as Squiz founders and directors Stephen Barker and Syriatowicz.

Dr David Hawking, Funnelback's technology founder, will also continue in his role as chief scientist.

The CSIRO said Squiz is now the best "SME partner" to take the technology further and expand usage across government and Australian sites, as well as other internet search results..

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. Visit: www.csiro.gov.au