Dialog, a Thomson business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, today announced the launch of its Dialog Application Programming Interface (API), a Web Service that enables Dialog’s extensive content collection and renowned search engine to be integrated transparently into Web sites, enterprise portals, corporate intranets and extranets, software applications and other interactive services.
“Our API technology is an exciting and far-reaching service for us,” said Roy M. Martin, Jr., Dialog president and CEO. “It is an important next step in providing truly integrated information solutions. The Dialog API technology gives us the flexibility to help customers integrate world-class content and functionality into the solutions they are building.”
Continued Martin: “Increasingly, sponsors of online communities recognize the importance of offering transparent access to external information resources. Dialog API enables us to meet that demand in formats required to serve varying constituencies so those users can find and harness information that adds value.”
Dialog API is designed for Web site developers, software programmers, enterprise information managers and others to integrate slices of the more than 14 terabytes of premium content—a vast and continuously updated electronic warehouse of news, business intelligence, current and archived journal articles, patents and research across an array of industries and topics—along with the Dialog search engine that allows users to pinpoint the specific documents they need within the content sets.
Dialog Bundling Content With Cymfony’s Real-Time Media Measurement Solution
An example of new information distribution channels made possible by Dialog API is the recently announced strategic alliance between Dialog and Cymfony, Inc. ( http://www.cymfony.com/ ), a leading business intelligence software and services company.
In October, Dialog and Cymfony announced that they are now bundling Dialog content—including business, trade and consumer publications; content from the pharmaceutical, medical and healthcare industries, among others; comprehensive local market intelligence; and worldwide news coverage from 80 countries in 11 languages—with Cymfony Brand Dashboard™, an award- winning media measurement and analytics application.
The broad scope of Dialog content available in Brand Dashboard through the API provides marketing professionals with the most comprehensive and cost- effective real-time media monitoring and analysis solution available today. Brand Dashboard allows direct access to breaking news, editorial content, broadcast transcripts and research about brands, markets, analysts and competitors. Brand Dashboard’s automatic message and issue tracking, tonal analysis, performance metrics and executive reporting are offered in an easy- to-use online application. The seamless integration of Dialog content with Cymfony Brand Dashboard delivers the industry’s first complete, out-of-the box media measurement solution.
Dialog API Built on XML & SOAP
Dialog API is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), a document mark- up language preferred by programmers and software developers because of the ease of sharing documents among different platforms and applications. Dialog API also incorporates Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), an XML-based communication standard widely used in IT infrastructures.
The use of XML and SOAP enables the Dialog API service to be so-called “application agnostic” and “platform independent,” meaning that Dialog documents and the search engine can be incorporated into Web sites and networks regardless of the platform those downstream services use.
XML also offers additional flexibility to integrate documents into applications in a range of format options (i.e., PDF, RTF, HTML and others) that best fit the architecture of the site or network re-packaging the Dialog content.
The launch of Dialog API is a further milestone in the company’s strategy for making its content accessible through alliances with a wide range of online services, including those designed for consumer or professional use through the open Web and those maintained by organizations (such as corporations, government agencies, universities and others) for internal use. Dialog recently launched Dialog Portals, a next-generation information service that allows mission-critical business news, research and competitive intelligence to be integrated into enterprise portals ( www.dialog.com/pressroom/2003/portals_101303.shtml ).
To inquire about incorporating Dialog API, please contact Charles White, Dialog vice president, Alliances, at (US) +1 (781) 229-3322 or via e-mail to charlie.white@dialog.com .
