February 14, 2005 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – At the DEMO@15! conference, one of the world's premier forums for new technology innovations, Pluck(TM) Corp. unveiled the first commercial version of its popular personal web information center, which includes a number of integrated Internet productivity tools that greatly improve the way users consume, control and create information online.
Dubbed Pluck 1.0, the latest version of the web information center, is available free of charge as a browser plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer and as a web-based service. Pluck is available at http://www.pluck.com .
Over the past several years, the Web has matured in significant ways with the advent of new technologies to receive information, communicate and conduct transactions online. But until now, taking advantage of these advancements required a hodge-podge of web browsers, search engines, e-mail clients, RSS Readers, and file management systems -- many of which cost money. Compounding this problem of complexity is the fact that the user's data was fragmented between these applications and tied to a single PC, making portability difficult. Pluck 1.0 helps overcome these hurdles by transforming the common browser into a "free," personalized web information center.
"I reviewed the beta version of Pluck last year and thought it was an elegant tool to solve the information glut the Web is creating for the everyday user," said Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO@15! "Pluck 1.0 takes it a step further with new features and capabilities that improve all aspects of the way consumers 'live' on the Web. It's a handy tool for any active Internet user."
Pluck provides Internet users with the following capabilities:
-- Single Source for all Web needs: all the tools a user needs to take advantage of new and existing web technologies -- including search, RSS feeds, bookmarks, blogs, e-commerce advancements, web publishing and information sharing -- is now available as part of the browser experience. This makes it familiar for users to operate and eliminates the need to bounce between disparate plug-ins, toolbars, applications and web sites.
-- Anywhere Access: the capabilities and benefits of Pluck are available from any computer or web-enabled device. The user's personal information store, including bookmarks, folders, RSS feeds and more, automatically follows them from computer-to-computer.
-- Automated Delivery of Personalized Information: Pluck proactively harvests information for users. This helps them stay informed and save money on items they want to purchase.
Key features available in Pluck 1.0 include:
-- Persistent Search: Pluck's Perch(TM) feature allows users to persistently search Google, eBay, Amazon and thousands of news sites and web blogs. Results are automatically retrieved, categorized, and stored in folders according to personal preferences. Users are also automatically notified when new items are found or prices change.
-- RSS Reader: Pluck's award-winning RSS reader enables users to have their favorite news or blog postings automatically delivered. An integrated RSS feed directory and search engine makes finding new sources easy.
-- Web Information Management: Pluck provides tools that organize, catalog and store Internet search results, web pages and other information in a single, centralized view. This includes the ability to filter news, search on topics of interest, and import existing collections of bookmarks and RSS feed subscriptions. Users choose between two powerful modes of viewing all their online information. Pluck's 'Digest View' provides a familiar web blog-like display of results for easy skimming of large amounts of data. The 'List View', designed to quickly sort and filter information, presents information in a split-pane view -- similar to Microsoft Outlook.
-- Public Folders for "Link-blogging": allows users to publish and share their collections of bookmarks, research and RSS feeds via publicly available web folders. With a single click, any portion of a user's personal web data can be automatically turned into publicly available web pages, hosted on the Internet for free by Pluck. Each folder has an associated RSS feed other people can subscribe to in order to receive updates when new items are added.
-- Synchronization: enables users to automatically access and synchronize their bookmarks, private and public folders, and RSS feeds between multiple computers and web-enabled devices so they're always available.
-- Pluck Web Edition: a new browser-independent version of Pluck lets users on any computer easily manage their online world. It also provides the ability for users of the Pluck for Internet Explorer plug-in to access their information when they are away from their computer.
"The advancements and capabilities available on today's Web -- dubbed by many as 'Web 2.0' -- promises to continue to improve our everyday lives," said Dave Panos, co-founder and CEO of Pluck Corp. "Pluck was created with the single goal of helping any individual take advantage of the Web's latest capabilities, quickly, easily and free of charge."
Availability
The 1.0 release candidate of Pluck for Internet Explorer and Pluck Web Edition are currently available for free at http://www.pluck.com . Pluck is also available as an embeddable, custom-branded service for major community, content and commerce web properties to offer to their customers. For more information on Pluck's partner offerings, please visit http://www.pluck.com/partners .
