Zanran
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{{Orphan|date=October 2019}}
{{Update|reason=The company seems to now be involved with AI.|date=March 2025}}
{{Unreliable sources|date=March 2025}}
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Zanran is a search engine for data and statistics.{{cite web | url=http://www.pcworld.fr/2011/05/26/internet/zanran-moteur-recherche-chiffres-statistiques/515751/ | title=Zanran, search engine data and statistics | publisher=Pcworld.fr | date=May 26, 2011 | access-date=January 12, 2012 | author=Chartier, Mathieu|language=fr}}{{cite web | url=http://fr.techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/zanran-le-nouveau-moteur-de-recherche-de-chiffres-est-accessible-en-beta/ | title=Zanran, the new search engine data is available in beta! | publisher=Fr.techcrunch.com | date=May 25, 2011 | access-date=January 12, 2012 | author=Bekkaoui, Selma|language=fr}} Zanran's focus is on finding graphs, charts and tables on the Internet, which distinguishes it from other search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.{{cite news | url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Donald-Marron/2011/0516/Will-Zanran-be-the-Google-for-data | title=Will Zanran be the Google for data? | newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor | date=May 16, 2011 | access-date=January 12, 2012 | author=Marron, Donald}}[http://selnd.com/lxNfgD] Matt McGee SearchEngineLand, 12 May 2011 Unlike a typical search engine, the results—graphs, tables, etc.—can be previewed by mouse-hovering over the thumbnails.[http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/2011/05/zanran-a-search-engine-for-graphs.html] Matthew Hurst, Data Mining Blog, 25 May 2011
History
In 2006, the founders, Dr Yves Dassas and Jon Goldhill, started developing the technology that makes Zanran possible. A limited beta ran, starting in November 2010. The service was launched as a public beta version in May 2011.{{cite web|title=Zanran is a new data search engine|url=https://myindigolives.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/zanran-is-a-new-data-search-engine/|website=Ellie Kesselman's weblog|access-date=22 June 2017|date=21 June 2011}}[http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2011/05/zanran.html] Phil Bradley's weblog, 24 May 2011
Technology
Zanran has developed two technologies specifically for this application:
- Image ‘classification’ is the ability for a computer to decide whether an image is a graph, a pie-chart etc. as opposed to a photograph or a cartoon. The Zanran algorithms work to over 95% accuracy. This is important because most images on the web are not graphs and otherwise there would be a large number of false positives.
- Text extraction is the process of taking the most appropriate text to describe the graph. This contrasts with a normal search engine where an entire HTML page might be included.
These processes are the subject of Zanran's UK patent.[http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20090812&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_gb&CC=GB&NR=2457267A&KC=A&ND=4] UK patent number GB2457267 The image processing in particular takes a great deal of computing power. Zanran runs on the Amazon cloud, and uses hundreds of machines at a time.
The service is English-language only as of December 2011.
The company
Zanran Ltd is based in London, UK. It was financed by the founders prior to a private angel investment round in March 2010.
Other data-search on the Internet
Other specialists in the data-search space include WolframAlpha, Infochimps, and Timetric.
References
External links
- [http://www.zanran.com/ Official website]