Google has scarfed up an advanced text search algorithm invented by Israeli student Ori Alon, says Haaretz. “Sources believe Yahoo and Microsoft were also negotiating with the University of New South Wales in Australia, where Alon is a doctoral student in computer science,” it says.”Google, Alon and the university all refused to comment, though Google confirmed that ‘Ori Alon works at Google’s Mountain View, California offices’.”
Orion finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the key word, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
“It then returns a section of the page, and lists other topics related to the key word so the user can pick the most relevant.”The results of the query are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts, giving the searcher the relevant information without having to go to the website - although there is still that option.”

New Google Algo this year? 

IT IS the hush-hush deal that could be worth millions - many, many millions.

Google, the world’s biggest player in the internet search business, has paid the University of NSW an undisclosed sum for the rights to a mathematical process that promises to change the way we explore the web.

But it is unclear how rich it will make Ori Allon, the 26-year-old doctoral student at the university who developed the algorithm, or formula, at the heart of the process. It could become the basis for the next generation of search engines, improving the relevance of responses to a search - and displaying a more detailed taste of each file so users can better decide if it is what they need.

But having won a tussle against its two main competitors - Yahoo! and Microsoft - to secure the rights, Google has gagged Mr Allon and UNSW from saying too much.

What we know is this: Mr Allon came to Sydney in March 2005 to work on a project run by Dr Eric Martin, of the university’s computer science department, to develop a better search engine.

Six months later, the team announced it had developed Orion - named after Mr Allon - which the university said would “revolutionise existing search engines”.

“I provided the spark,” Dr Martin said last year, “but it is Ori who developed this through his amazing creati-vity and sheer hard work.”

Yesterday, he said: “What others would have taken two to three years to do, he did in six months.”

The university took the formula to the US, and now Mr Allon is working out of Google’s head office in California. But because of confidentiality agreements, all the university can do is confirm that Mr Allon is a Google employee.

Beyond that, it is unclear how much he will benefit personally. The university retains the intellectual property rights, and that could mean a steady flow of royalty payments if the process is eventually integrated into Google’s search engine.

Mr Allon told the Herald he hoped to return to Australia one day. “I certainly hope to come back and contribute to Australia thanks to the expertise I acquired in Australian universities.”

Funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council, Mr Allon - an Israeli who completed a bachelor and masters degree at Monash University - worked out of a small office on the fourth floor of the computer sciences faculty at UNSW’s Kensington campus.

“It was basically Ori in a room with five servers,” said Andrew Stead, a manager at the university’s NewSouth Innovations business development agency.

At the heart of the process - as with all search engine technology - is a mathematical formula that dictates the nature of the internet search.

Orion finds pages with content strongly related to the key word entered in the search. It then returns a section of those pages, and lists other topics related to the key word so users can pick the most relevant.

The results of the search are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts, giving the searcher the relevant information without having to go to the website.

Dr Martin said there was no eureka moment: “[Mr Allon] just kept working on it and it became better and better.”