Cambridge-Based Northern Light Named Premier Search Engine

Featured as one of the World Wide Web's premier search engines in the Jan. 6, issue of PC Magazine, Cambridge-based Northern Light (www.nlsearch.com) is giving the popular Yahoo a run for its money.

According to C. David Seuss, founder and CEO of Northern Light, "There is a lot of free information [on the Web], sometimes good, but too often not."

Touted as the world's first Web-based research engine, Northern Light combines an advanced Web site search engine with accessibility to "premium" information resources, Seuss says.

For a mere $1 to $4, the average user may access more than 2,9000 magazines, books, databases and news wires.

"The Web is the ultimate expression of the problem of too much data and not enough information," Seuss says. "Northern Light is making a wholly original contribution to solving this problem by improving the ability of Web searchers to focus on what is relevant and of high quality."

With service that begun in August, 1997, Northern Light is one of the world's newest search engines, but according to Seuss, two factors differentiate Northern Light from its better-known peers.

The first factor is the volume of information. Northern Light is able to draw from both Web sites and "premium" information sources not currently available online, Seuss says.

Furthermore, Northern Light's advanced software technology enables its five-editor team to add about a million Web pages each week to its current database of about 65 million.

According to Seuss, Yahoo's staff of 50 editors have only indexed around 200,000 Web pages thus far.

The second factor for Northern Light's superiority is the advanced classification capability of its search technology, Seuss said.

Unlike most search engines, Northern Light classifies its Web and premium documents according to both subject and type. Search returns are then placed by type into custom search folders which help to narrow down the search . Unlike Yahoo, the folders are made specifically for each search and not based upon a pre-set hierarchy, Seuss says.

According to Seuss, Northern Light's automated indexing capability ensures that it is "85 to 90 percent accurate and 100 percent consistent," as compared with manually-indexed engines like Yahoo, which are only "50 percent accurate."

Seuss admits, however, that Northern Light isn't meant for the average Web surfer looking for general news or "pop culture" sites. Instead, it is meant to be used as an effective research tool.

"We're going after serious consumers where quality information makes a difference," Seuss said. "If you are just surfing around, Northern Light is probably not the place to go."

The Founding Story

Seuss, who received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978, founded the $65-million Spinnaker Software Corporation before he created Northern Light last fall. Spinnaker has since been sold to Softkey International, a Canadian software firm.

The inspiration for Northern Light was simple, Seuss says." We made the observation that when someone searched the [World Wide Web], they were drawing from a database of, on average, low-quality resources, compared to premium resources like Lexus-Nexus," he says.

Seuss says Northern Light hopes to fill this void by bringing "premium" information to the Web.

"We are not trying to invent media," he says. "Instead, we hope to help sectors where quality information is important, where time is money , like analysis for businesses."

Thus far, publications have been happy to be included in Northern Light's premium document database, Seuss says.

"We have an irresistible pitch," he says. "We can process content in any format. There is no additional cost for the publication. We handle the transaction and a percentage of sales goes back to the publication, so they're getting additional revenue at no additional cost."

Despite all of its promising features, however, Northern Light has yet to show its profitability.

Unlike Yahoo and AltaVista, Northern Light does not contain advertisements of any sort. Instead, the $1 to $4 fee users must pay to view "premium" articles are to be the main source of revenue, Seuss says.