Los Angeles, Calif, – Sept. 27, 2000 — “Five years ago, search engines seemed like the Web’s salvation today they need some saviors of their own.” That was Lisa Guernsey writing in the New York Times last June, and after reading that I knew that we were on to something. Because six months earlier we had assembled a team and gave them the assignment of building the web’s largest index directory of information about parenting, and issues related to young children. We named it KinderStart.com link utilized Linux-based design code with a MYSQL database, PERL and PHP, designed it to function as a “vortal” or vertical search-engine, and launched it in August 2000. What exactly is a vortal and what does it do? First, let me backtrack a bit.

In 1995 there were 1.5 million web pages. Today there are more than
1 billion with an additional 1 million being added every day. All that information spells trouble for the typical search engine (which tends to answer the simplest query with thousands of answers) not to mention the typical web-user who must find a way to navigate this overwhelming flood of information. That’s where “verticality” comes in.

When we started work on KinderStart.com we were typical parents with lots of questions about how to raise our 3 year-old son Matthew – when should he go to the dentist, is he just hyper or hyper-active or ADD, are his vaccines safe, when can he play soccer, is that a blotch a bruise or a birthmark? You get the picture. Trouble was, if we utilized the Internet to answer those questions we spent a whole lot of time going nowhere. That’s why we created a customized search engine that doesn’t promise caregivers and parents the world, just the world of information about kids seven years and under.

That’s what verticality is all about, and that’s why KinderStart.com is the focused, easy to use search-engine for answers to your parenting questions. Got Kids? Need Instructions? Go to: KinderStart.com.

— Submitted by Robert DeFulgentiis

IBM’s global services division will add hosted storage and storage management to its portfolio, reports TechWeb News, hoping to establish itself in the IT-on-demand market through its systems expertise.

ZDNet UK News reports, a UK company, dubbed FreeBox, claims it will bridge the digital divide in its ambitious plan to provide every house in Britain with a free set-top box to access digital television channels and the Internet.

PRNewswire: Computer Associates International, Inc. and Red Hat, Inc
today announced an agreement to ship a live trial version of CA’s acclaimed
flagship data protection solution, ARCserveIT, with every copy of Red Hat
Linux 7 Professional Edition.

Wired News observations from the Embedded Systems Conference this week in San Jose, California.

Freshmeat reports, VA SystemImager makes the installation of Linux to masses of similar machines relatively easy. It also makes software and content distribution, configuration, and operating system updates easy. (Full disclosure: NewsForge is owned by VA Linux.)

All Linux Devices article concludes, “Even if I prematurely predicted the death of FUD, my money’s still on Linux.”

Sun has announced the open source release of its “Grid Engine” product , a loose clustering package oriented toward making use of idle desktop systems, from NewsAlert.

Continuing its streak of product innovation fanfare, InternetNews reports, IntraNet Solutions Inc. Wednesday introduced new technology from their recently-acquired information exchange for Web developers to clamor over.

Business Wire on NewsAlert: Interactive Objects, Inc., and Red Hat, Inc. today announced a strategic alliance designed to enable the development of a family of new digital audio playback devices
based on the Dadio digital audio OS and platform.