CSIRO sells Funnelback search company to Squiz

Stuart Corner
Friday, 03 July 2009 10:02

IT Industry - Strategy

Customers today also include the Australian Securities Exchange Commission, Oxfam, Westpac, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Australian state and federal government departments. In April 2008 Funnelback was chosen to provide an outsourced search functionality to Telstra's jus launched, revamped Web 2.0 based Nowwearetalking web site, launched in April

Squiz managing director and founder, John-Paul Syriatowicz, said the Funnelback and MySource Matrix products would complement each other extremely well. "We have a great many customers in common so it makes sense to bring the two organisations closer together. As organisations continue their inevitable move towards browser-centric information management, powerful, fully integrated search will play an increasingly important role in content management.

"I believe 2010 will herald a fundamental shift in the content management systems and search marketplace as clients and vendors realise the two are inseparable. Trying to treat them as discrete solutions simply doesn't work."

He said that Funnelback would continue as a separate company and retain its own brand. "There will be no changes to company structure, staffing or strategy aside from an increased focus on close integration with MySource Matrix," Syriatowicz said. "Funnelback is doing a great job."

The name Funnelback is a play on the name of two spiders – the Funnel-web and the Redback. It was chosen because a core component of the Funnelback search engine is a web spider and Funnelback's ability to rapidly funnel relevant information back to the user.