Google snaps up student's search engine

13 April 2006

Google, one of the world's biggest players in the internet business, has bought the rights to a search engine tool developed by PhD student Ori Allon from the School of Computer Science and Engineering.

The California-based company has also hired Allon, whose advanced search engine is set to revolutionise the way we can efficiently acquire information from the internet.

"It's a real pleasure to see such a smart UNSW student gain the prospect of a significant career with an international giant, and to see such outstanding UNSW technology successfully commercialised," says Mark Bennett, CEO of UNSW's technology transfer company, NewSouth Innovations.

The advanced text search algorithm will speed up the time-consuming search function by working with existing search engines.

The technology allows the display of information from web sites directly, without users having to click through to separate pages. It also displays search results for topics related to the user's query.

The software was developed with Allon's supervisor, Dr Eric Martin. "I provided the spark but it is Ori who developed this through his amazing creativity," says Dr Martin. "What others would have taken two or three years to do, he did in six months."

"It's a great day for UNSW," says Professor Paul Compton, head of the School of Computer Science and Engineering.

"There has been a lot of talk about computing students needing soft skills. Soft skills are important for a lot of students, but there is also an assumption behind this that all Australia can do is to apply soft skills to technology from elsewhere.

"At UNSW we have a different approach. We have the best students in the world in computer science - they win international competitions, as well as work for Google! Our goal is to train these students to be the inventors of new technologies. If they want soft skills they can certainly do a double-degree, but our focus is on deep technical problem solving and creativity, and no compromises in this.

"Googlemaps is also an Australian invention and the reason Google has a research laboratory in Sydney is the inventors did not want to move to the US," says Professor Compton.

Though working in Mountain View, California, Ori Allon is still a full-time student at the University and will continue working on the invention with Dr Martin.