Patent Search and Freecycle Support Announced for OS X Search Agent

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Patent Search and Freecycle Support Announced for OS X Search Agent - Published on 06/05/08

 

Black Pixel Luminance announces updates and two new plugins for Agent Craig, the internet search agent for OS X Leopard. Agent Craig, which already provides automated background searches of Craig's List and Ebay, now adds Freecycle groups to the list of sites available to tech savvy bargain hunters. In addition, a new patent search plugin allows for extensive intellectual property research campaigns via the US Patent office website.

 

Seattle, WA - Black Pixel Luminance announces updates and two new plugins for Agent Craig, the internet search agent for OS X Leopard. Agent Craig, which already provides automated background searches of Craig's List and Ebay, now adds Freecycle groups to the list of sites available to tech savvy bargain hunters. In addition, a new patent search plugin allows for extensive intellectual property research campaigns via the US Patent office website.

 

The first follows in the "bargain hunters" theme of the core application, and adds background searches targeting the sites in the Freecycle network (hosted by Yahoo! Groups).

 

The second plugin is for intellectual property interests, and provides the ability to search the US Patent and Trademark Office for patents, both pending and approved, and to receive instant notification when new patents of interest are posted.

 

"Patent search is an exciting move for us," said Dan Pasco, Black Pixel's CEO. "Anyone that has every been involved in patent research is keenly aware of what a chore it can be. A lot of Agent Craig's features, such as blacklisting unwanted results, were made with IP research in mind. The ability to monitor new patents conforming to your search is an added benefit."

 

Blacklisting is a process by which unwanted results can be prevented from showing up in subsequent searches.

 

In addition to the new plugins, the existing Craig's List search capability will be expanded to handle international sites and the full set of existing cities and categories.

 

"The feature wish list never stopped growing, and I am thrilled to start work on the new Craig's List enhancements. Judging by the feedback, everyone else is eager for them too," said Bil Moorehead, senior developer at Black Pixel. Moorehead is Agent Craig's lead developer and is heading up work on the new features announced today.

 

Both plugins are slated for a late June '08 release; pricing has yet to be determined.

 

About Agent Craig:

Agent Craig, which runs as a background application on OS X Leopard, provides an unobtrusive way to conduct periodic searches on remote sites. Discrete pop-up messages notify the user of new results matching their search terms, and each search campaign can be customized with a distinct audio alert.

 

Users can browse search results matching their criteria, annotate results with notes for future reference, and blacklist search results deemed irrelevant to prevent them from showing up in subsequently defined search queries.

 

Pricing and Availability:

Agent Craig sells for $29.99 USD and is available for evaluation and purchase at the Black Pixel Luminance website.

 

About Freecycle

The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,488 groups with 5,240,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free.

 

Black Pixel Luminance: http://blackpixelluminance.com

Agent Craig: http://blackpixelluminance.com/agentcraig.html

Direct Download Link: http://blackpixelluminance.com/updates/AgentCraig_1.02.dmg

Purchase Link: http://blackpixelluminance.com/agentcraig.html

Screenshot: http://blackpixelluminance.com/images/ac/annotate3.png

Screenshot/App Icon: http://blackpixelluminance.com/peace.png

 

 

Black Pixel Luminance is a software development group focused exclusively on iPhone and Mac software development. The group, which was founded in February 2008, has created Agent Craig, a collaborative task management application known as Aria, and two yet-to-be-announced applications for the Apple iPhone.

 

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Steve Duff

Director of Operations

206-216-3923

 

brainiacs ( -at -) blackpixelluminance.com

 

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