GraphicBrain gets smart with new search engine

Graphic arts enthusiasts will no longer have to wade through spam, porn and advertisements to find what they're looking for.

The GraphicBrain.com website site offers four search engines focused on the printing and publishing industry, allowing users to search for different types of information; from magazine articles, vendor websites, discussion forums and blogs.

For optimum results, GraphicBrain.com users a filter placed on top of Google so that only websites that have been handpicked by the people of VIGC (Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphic Commuication) are shown in the results.

First launched in 2001, GraphicBrain was one of the first 'vertical' search engines; but it had only a limited impact as the results looked different from what people were used to and after a few years started showing errors. As a consequence, the search engine was stopped in 2005.

With these problems behind it, Eddy Hagen, managing director of the Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphic Commuication says that GraphicBrain can expect to power ahead.

"With this relaunch of GraphicBrain.com as a specialised search engine, we are back at the origins," he said. "We have learned from the past."

"Our new search engines are based on solid technology that almost everybody uses, almost every day: Google.

"All our search engines are free to use, for everybody. This was part of the agreement with Google. The combination of the Google expertise on search technology and the expertise of VIGC on the printing and publishing industry makes GraphicBrain.com a unique tool. The filter that GraphicBrain.com applies is one of the biggest projects in this type of Google applications."