inf@m~tjona~ Journd of ~n~of~~f~~ ~a~a~e~~n~ f 199.3, 12 ( f 84-l 65)

News from Information House

FREEWAY from FT PROFILE

Just when Dialog, the online host, is celebrating its 20th anniversary, another online vendor, FT PROFILE (3 mere ten years old!), has leapt to the front of the race for innovation in the provision of online information. FT PROFILE announced a major change to its search system at the International Online Information Meeting (IOLIM) in London last De- cember.

Entitled FREEWAY, FT PRO- FILE’s new search system is not so much a change as a total revolution in the way online searches will be con- ducted in the future. Based on Micro- soft’s Windows 3.0 WIMP~G~~A (Windows, Icons, Mouse Pointer/ Graphics User Assisted) operating system, the system is:

0 Visually very attractive; 0 Largely intuitive in operation; and e Highly time saving.

The system will be beta-tested by a number of FT PROFILE customers in the first half of 1992 after which it will be released generally. It is aimed at the end user who needs screen prompts in order to work through a search. However, it does open up the ~ssibiiity for information profession- als to ‘tailor’ screens for individual users.

Users of online information are generally presented with a bland monocolour/white on black screen with prompts which are unintelligible to the untrained user. FREEWAY has a pink background (what else would do for the IT!) with white back- grounds for windows. The general effect is that of a control panel where the data needed at each point are in the most logical place on the screen.

In an early screen the user is pre- sented with two windows, one listing available sources (e.g., Financial Tinzcs, Guardian, Hoppenstedt, etc.) and the other listing subjects (e.g., company news, market research etc.). Choices are made by moving the

mouse pointer to the desired option and clicking. If 3 subject is chosen using the mouse attachment, the range of sources, such as company news databases, is displayed.

The searcher can build up a search strategy on the screen prior to logging on the system and minimize the time for which he/she is charged. Headlines and text can be browsed and down- loaded or printed out and at no time is the user left in the air as to what to do next.

All a user needs to type in are search terms. Standard search features are:

r) AND, OR and NOT; 0 Ensuring that search terms appear

in the same sentence or paragraph; and

* Restricting search terms to the headline or beginning of an article/ record.

These are predefined and can be selected from pop-up window options.

Much care has been taken by FT PROFILE to design 3 simple yet com- prehensive pathway to their informa- tion. There will be many imitators amongst the online info~ati~~ll pro- viders but in the meantime FT PRO- FILE have a clear lead in the race to open up online business ~nfor~nati~~~~ to the almost limitless end user mar- ket.

Fortress FT

Dialog announced in January that in common with Mead Data Control the Financial Times full-text file has been withdrawn from their service. They pointed out that the FT will be avaii- able in abstract form via their well- established PROMT and Infomat files and their new Textline file and that the full text of other UK newspapers such as the Independent and the Times are now available on the Dialog ser- vice.

Time will tell whether this policy of the Financial Times to limit the full-

text file to their own FT PROFILE system will achieve the aim of increas- ing the use of FT PROFILE. Some users such 3s dedicated US-based Di- alog users with a peripheral need for UK-sourced news information will learn to do without. No FT - but still able to comment.

ABC Travelog on CD-ROM

One of the most interesting CD-ROM databases to be donated to ASLIB’s Testdrive facility is Reed Internation- al’s ABC Travelog. This is the electro- nic equivalent of Reed’s airline guide. It is the first CD-ROM that we have encountered with advertising. Screen advertisements for specific airlines or hotel chains pop up as the searcher progresses through the system, They can be read or quickly bypassed and, hence, are in no way irritating or obtrusive.

The CD-ROM is very easy to use. The instruction manual is in electronic form on the disc and can, therefore, be easily updated. Discs are supplied monthly.

The user chooses a departure oityi town and a destination city/town and is prompted for an airport where there is more than one choice e.g., Heath- row, Gatwick, Stanstead and City air- ports for London. Dates and preferred times are then chosen and it is also possible to state a preference for an airline.

The system then displays the avail- able choices with further information on airports.

The Economist on CD-RQM

The Economist joins the ~~d~~e~de~~t and the FinanciaE Times and becomes the third CD-ROM publication from the FT PROFILE stable. It will be launched in the second quarter of 1992 and will initially include the whole of the 1991 content of the Ecoaonrist plus the first quarter of 1992.

News from /nformat;on House

The search software will be Person- There will also be a much simplified the sophistication of the full version, it al Librarian - the same as for the version of the search software running will be ideal for intermittent users, Independent and the Financial Times. under MS-DOS. No training will be e.g., where the Economist on CD- For the first time, however, graphics needed to use this new interface and ROM is on open access in a public,

will be available for the Windows 3.0 all the information needed by a sear- university or polytechnic library. version. This will include charts and cher will be available via screen graphs but not photographs. prompts. Although this interface lacks hunk Ryan

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