Finding things is becoming a growing concern for IBM

The computing giant, based in Armonk, N.Y., is gearing up to release Masala, a new version of its DB2 Information Integrator software that will let corporate employees retrieve information from databases, applications and the Web at the same time. Subsequent improvements will include a data-mining component code-named Criollo. Although the market for this type of middleware is small, interest is strong. About 1,300 IBM customers use the first version of Information Integrator, which came out almost a year ago, said Nelson Mattos, director of the Information Integration Software Group at IBM. Only 120 were involved in the beta program, which ran from July 2002 to June 2003. Search is the word these days in the technology industry, with several large and small companies devising technology to help people retrieve documents in foreign languages, 3D and 2D drawings, old e-mails and other hard-to-find material from the nether regions of their hard drives.