Maltalinks Launched on 1 October 2002
The newly launched Maltalinks search engine, accessible at http://www.maltalinks.com, addresses the sorely felt need for a proper search engine that helps Internet users find updated information about Malta and the Maltese quickly and efficiently. Maltalinks is the first search engine that fully supports websites and pages written in Maltese as well as English. Using locally developed technology the search engine can automatically distinguish between a page that has been written in English or Maltese. This allows users to find information written in Maltese more quickly than using any other search engine on the Internet.
The number of Maltese websites has steadily increased from a couple of websites in 1996 to a few thousand in 2002. Maltalinks will initially contain content from 180,000 pages, representing the largest collection of Maltese related material over the Internet. Using patent-pending technology, Maltalinks will automatically present a summary of relevant content contained in websites. This helps users identify relevant websites more quickly.
Most existing search directory websites listing Maltese related websites simply consist of a searchable list of Internet addresses that have to be submitted manually by Internet users. The content on these directories is often outdated after a few months. Since the Internet is continually changing, the relevancy of a particular site might increase or decrease over time too. A search engine like Maltalinks takes a more proactive role by looking for Maltese related content on the Internet on a 24 hour basis. This process is technically known as crawling and ensures that all search results are up to date. Old information that is no longer available on the Internet is also removed periodically.
Maltalinks uses its own proprietary technology to rank websites based on the relevancy of the website content together with the popularity of a particular website. Content published on more popular sites will thus rank higher in the search result. Maltalinks also analyses content to look for information on persons and place names mentioned in the text when determining the importance of a particular website.
“Maltalinks intends to be the most comprehensive search engine in Malta, specialising in intelligent content analysis and Human Language Technologies”, said Angelo Dalli, CEO at Maltalinks. Maltalinks have been developing the search engine technology over the past year.
Apart from search services Maltalinks also offers current news from Malta, including content from the Times, to keep visitors up to date. The site also offers a number of convenient services such as currency conversion, domain name sale, rental, appraisal and registration facilities. These services will be gradually be expanded to add innovative new features in the coming months.
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