Google Confirms Licensing Search Engine, Hiring Creator

Google Inc. on Tuesday confirmed that it has licensed a search algorithm from an Australian university that says the technology delivers expanded results that make it more likely people will chose the right link to the most relevant Web page.

The technology called "Orion" was developed by Ori Allon, 26, a PhD student at the University of New South Wales. Google confirmed licensing the search engine, which is owned by the university, and hiring Allon, but declined to discuss its plans for the technology.

"Google has purchased the assets of Orion and Ori Allon is now an employee," the Mountain View, Calif., company said in an emailed statement. "We're thrilled to have him here."

According to a press release issued by the university last September, Orion is "new way of exploring the Web that could revolutionize existing search engines." The technology is meant to complement searches done on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft MSN or other providers.

Orion finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the keyword, and then returns a section of the page. It also lists other topics related to the key word so the user can pick the most relevant.

The idea is to give enough information to more easily choose the Web sites that would be most useful to the searcher. Having to click through multiple Web sites in order to find relevant information is a common complaint among search engine users.

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