Thomson Reuters has introduced Checkpoint Catalyst, a major new library on its tax research platform. The introduction includes new content, but there have also been enhancements to the platform itself such as improvements to searches which will operate with a great deal more intelligence."We have made a significant number of platform enhancements," says Steve Zelman, SVP of product platforms for Thomson Reuters.
The library, introduced this week, marks a major break with the past. "Instead of using the old print brand names, we are calling Checkpoint Catalyst; not RIA, WG&L or PPC ," Zelman says. He notes there is no print version of this product which he calls "the first product that was ever written from scratch with the Internet in mind."
What Zelman referred to as dramatic changes in search include what the company calls intuitive search. "Behind the scenes, it figures out what you are trying to do," Zelman says. "Are you trying to do a natural language search, Boolean or a citation search?" The search itself will make decisions based on the words written in the search and " will figure what you are trying to do," he says.
The search will also learn from all prior search a user has conducted and continue to build a base of decision-making. The system has also extracted editorial metadata and the improvements should mean users get better results. "The likelihood that you will get your most relevant results in the top five is significant enhanced," Zelman says.
The user interface for search results has also changed with the default moving toward the source lists views. The system will judge with source had the best results and provide one-click opening for the top three results. Catalyst also strives to keep results on a the first screen. A context panel that comes up when a user starts opening documents has been moved from the left side of the screen to the right.
