IBM's Almaden Research Center is cooking up new search software that unearths the most relevant information in a search query to help people find information buried in their email applications. IBM calls <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2238272,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">OmniFind Personal Email Search</A>--or IOPES--semantic, or "smart" search, because it uses special algorithms that can rationalize incomplete queries to retrieve information such as phone numbers, people, meetings, presentations, documents and images.

IOPES, unveiled Dec. 20, also allows users to create, save and share personalized searches for future use. The software, though not initially positioned as a competitive product, is the latest innovation in an enterprise search market loaded with rivals Google, Microsoft, Fast Search & Transfer, and Autonomy.