Aeneid Corporation

Aeneid Corporation, a privately held company based in San Francisco, emerged in 1999 to deliver a content aggregation and commerce service tailored for vertical portals. The firm's core offering was EoCenter, a service that utilized Aeneid's proprietary technology for "narrowcast searches," which focused on high-quality, publicly available information from a curated list of key websites, with the backend powered by the Inktomi search engine.

The business model centered on providing this specialized search and content cataloging technology to other businesses. A notable early achievement was a joint development and marketing partnership with VerticalNet, Inc. This collaboration aimed to integrate Aeneid's EoCenter into VerticalNet's network of 39 industry-specific portals, such as Water Online and Power Online. By leveraging Aeneid's information catalogs and advanced search capabilities, VerticalNet's communities could access more relevant and structured industry information. Another key client was the Gale Group, which implemented Aeneid's technology for its ComputerSelect Web product. The company's technology was designed to create what were described as Internet Information Exchanges, aggregating content for specialized vertical markets.

The leadership team included Bob Ainsbury, who served as the Chief Technology Officer. The company positioned itself as a provider of advanced search technologies and industry information catalogs for the burgeoning vertical portal market of the late 1990s.

Keywords: content aggregation, vertical portals, narrowcast search, enterprise search, information catalogs, B2B technology, internet information exchange, content commerce, proprietary search technology, Inktomi, VerticalNet partnership, Gale Group client, Bob Ainsbury