A New Day for Online Shoppers: Fatlens Launches First-Ever Search Engine Built Expressly for Online Shopping

/PRNewswire/ -- Following the market success of its unique event ticket
 shopping search site, FatLens today announced an expansion of its
 patent-pending technology to address more e-commerce categories for the 2005
 holiday season. In October, the FatLens site will preview shopping search for
 six popular categories -- clothing, accessories, shoes, luggage, jewelry and
 electronics. The new shopping search capabilities will be demonstrated for the
 first time to DEMOfall attendees this week.
     Over the last five years, the number of Americans purchasing online has
 grown by 63%, representing a $79 billion market in 2005. Consumers, familiar
 with using Internet search to find Web sites and relevant content, are finding
 that search engines are built for text search and do not provide comprehensive
 and relevant shopping search results. FatLens is the first search engine with
 technology designed specifically for shopping and intends to usher in a new
 day for online shoppers.
     "Shopping online is a popular activity and continues to grow tremendously
 every year, but many consumers are still frustrated by not being able to find
 what they want, or where to buy it," said Nanda Kishore, CEO, FatLens. "We
 realized these frustrations were largely due to how consumers were doing their
 shopping -- by using search engines meant to uncover information, not products
 or merchants. With FatLens, we hope to provide savvy shoppers with a quantum
 improvement in their online shopping search experience relative to today's
 general purpose search engines and comparison shopping sites."
     In June 2005, FatLens first launched its unique search technology for the
 event ticket category and helped change the way consumers shopped for tickets
 online by enabling them to search hundreds of sites all at once, including
 Craigslist, eBay and primary ticket sellers like Ticketmaster. With the
 expansion into six new shopping categories -- planned for an October 2005
 preview launch -- consumers will find the same powerful shopping search
 functionality with the following features:
 
      -- The Web's Most Comprehensive Shopping Search Results -- FatLens has
         a continuously growing search index that will quickly include all the
         products carried by mainstream and major online retailers. Through a
         combination of patent-pending search crawlers (spiders) and
         algorithmic classification, the site will offer an unmatched
         comprehensiveness in shopping search results.
      -- Smart Search Engine Delivers Precise and Relevant Results -- Search
         results are not based on merchant paid placements, but are precisely
         matched algorithmically using full knowledge of the shopping
         categories. For example, a search for "Motorola Bluetooth Headset"
         will better reflect the searcher's intent and not show headsets from
         other manufacturers. In addition, results are ordered by the Consumer
         Merchant Preference (CMP) ranking which prioritizes results using
         consumers' aggregate purchasing and search preferences. This means
         that the first results shown are exactly what all other consumers
         found as the most important for that specific search in that category.
         The powerful search capability is especially well suited for "soft
         goods" categories like clothing, accessories, shoes and jewelry.
      -- Consumer Features Tailored for Shopping Search -- The FatLens search
         engine interface is optimized for shopping search. The site's Wish
         List feature enables shoppers to save product search results and come
         back at a later time to items of interest, or easily compare multiple
         items from different searches. Just like other search engines, FatLens
         does not include extraneous capabilities such as merchant grading
         systems, user reviews or feature comparisons, but will continue to add
         only features that make the online shopping search experience easier
         and more enjoyable over time.
      -- New Merchant Revenue Approach -- Instead of using lead-based sponsored
         advertising links or showing just the results that are paid
         placements, the FatLens business model shows all relevant results and
         is based on merchant sales. No other search engine or comparison
         shopping site offers such direct goal alignment for merchants selling
         online.
 
     "FatLens is taking a powerful new approach to online shopping through its
 innovative search technology. This is an enormous leap forward for the growing
 world of online buying and selling," said Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of
 the DEMO Conferences.
     FatLens is showcasing the new shopping search capabilities onstage at the
 conference and will be providing demonstrations in the DEMOfall 2005
 Demonstrator Pavilion, station #27.
 
     About DEMOfall 2005
     The annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new
 products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology
 marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for
 consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served
 as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring and U.S.
 Robotics, helping them secure venture funding, establish critical business
 relationships and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features
 approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more
 information on the DEMO conferences, visit www.demo.com.
 
     About FatLens
     FatLens, the Web's most powerful shopping search engine, is a new way to
 search and shop online. FatLens uses patent-pending search technology
 optimized for shopping to help consumers quickly find the best bargains and
 the largest selection of products from all over the Internet. The FatLens
 search capability, launched for event ticket shopping in June 2005, is
 experiencing rapidly increasing consumer Web traffic. In October 2005, FatLens
 is extending the search capability in a preview release that will help
 consumers search and shop in six additional categories -- clothing,
 accessories, shoes, luggage, jewelry and electronics. For more information on
 FatLens, please visit the company's Web site at www.fatlens.com.
 
 

SOURCE  FatLens