ZoomInfo last week launched a new version of ZoomInfo.com that utilizes the company's patented semantic search technology. As a result, the company promises better search results for users. The company says the semantic search engine will crawl the business web for information, scanning such sources as Web sites, press releases and electronic news services. Then, it will semantically tag, aggregate and organize the information into usable profiles.
New features that ZoomInfo.com now offers include free company searches, comprehensive job searches and highly relevant product searches. The site will also continue to offer plenty of free (and small fee) functionality. Searching people by name will still be free, while ZoomInfo is now touting low-cost access to deeper people information (such as work history, education, contact information and web references) as part of its ZoomExec service. ZoomInfo has also announced an initiative serving B2B advertisers later this year.
Services, such as those offered by ZoomInfo, are now abundantly available on the web for people seeking contact information for other individuals and companies. (Among ZoomInfo's competitors: Jigsaw and LinkedIn.) Because this new "market" is getting flooded with players, it’s more important than ever for these companies to provide even better offerings. The big differentiators in this marketplace will be the most accurate information, found quickly and presented in an easy-to-use format. By bolstering the functionality and breadth of its offerings, ZoomInfo is on the right track. Time will tell if the new ZoomInfo.com is really different--and better --than the rest.