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NovaUCD

The Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre

An Lárionad Nuála agus Aistrithe Teicneolaíochta

HeyStaks Launches Community-Based Search Apps for iPad and Android Tablets

-      Users Can Now Search Less and Find More

HeyStaks, the Irish social search start-up with offices in NovaUCD and San Francisco, today announced an innovative one-stop mobile search solution combining the best search results from both your community and search engines.  

The product is presented in an interactive and engaging newspaper-like user interface to help users quickly and easily get more relevant and personalized search results. HeyStaks is releasing apps for the iPad and Android tablets today.

The apps are also featured as one of the fifteen best of the web apps on the Sony Tablet S Honeycomb devices rolling out globally in the U.S., Asia and Europe this month, and on Sony's Tablet P rolling out later this Autumn. HeyStaks’ apps are already available on iPhone and Android phones.

HeyStaks iPad Results 
HeyStaks iPad App Results Screen

Based on the premise that people sharing common interests will generate the best and most personalized search results, HeyStaks is powered by search communities, anonymous users joined in a group based on their mutual interests, such as California travel, wineries, sporting goods, gadgets, news topics, etc. The app generates results that are much more relevant to people with similar interests, in addition to standard search engine results.

"People expect more from their searches. They want to search less but find more, and that is where HeyStaks comes in. Our users receive search results that are more targeted to their specific interests because they are generated from communities of like-minded people around a specific topic. Importantly, identities are protected and never revealed, yet users still get the benefit of the best of each other's searches, simply by searching as normal." said Jonathan Dillon, CEO of HeyStaks.

He added, "We are excited to continue our mission of being the go-to search solution across tablets and smart-phones worldwide.  Our iPhone and Android phone apps are already gaining traction and the introduction of our tablet apps for iPads and Android devices is our next step to achieving that vision."

HeyStaks, a University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out company, was founded in 2008 by Dr Peter Briggs, Dr Maurice Coyle and Professor Barry Smyth. HeyStaks is based on technology developed as part of Professor Smyth’s research group and the CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, a Science Foundation Ireland funded research centre between UCD, Dublin City University, and the Tyndall National Institute.

HeyStaks is pioneering the next wave of search technology by combining communities of people and search engine recommendations to help users find the most relevant information quickly.

Upon searching on a particular topic, users simply tap to join the most appropriate community based on that topic and are immediately presented with targeted content that users with shared interests have searched for in the past.

While the user interface is simple and engaging, the model is built on unique and proprietary relevance and reputation-based social algorithms. HeyStaks also complements current search engine results by featuring Google and other search results in a newspaper-style format, and will feature more third party content sources as it continues to grow.

HeyStaks is a free application and is currently available on Android tablets, iPads, the iPhone, and Android phones.  Additionally, the HeyStaks social search app is currently featured in the Select App site on the new Sony Tablets, where Sony features fifteen of the best of the web apps for their customers, with HeyStaks featuring in the categories ‘What's Hot’ and ‘New Ideas’.

During 2010 HeyStaks secured venture funding from The Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, which is managed by NCB Ventures. 

ENDS

26 September 2011

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 (0)1 716 3712 or Jonathan Dillon, HeyStaks, e: jonathan.dillon@heystaks.com, t:  +1 415 990 3726.

Editors Notes

HeyStaks is a unique technology that allows searchers to harness their social graphs as they search on their favourite search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing etc), effectively bringing together the content sharing world of the social networks and the query-based search world of mainstream search engines. HeyStaks was founded by Professor Barry Smyth, Dr Maurice Coyle and Dr Peter Briggs. The company has offices in NovaUCD and in San Francisco. www.heystaks.com

NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises such as HeyStaks Technologies. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.  www.ucd.ie/nova