EDGAR Online Introduces Natural Language Business Plan Analysis & Development Tool

IPO Profiler uses Plain English Queries

NORWALK, CT, December 1, 1999 - EDGAR Online, Inc. (NASDAQ: EDGR) today introduced IPO Profiler, a business plan analysis and development tool that has been added to EDGAR Online’s IPO Express service (www.ipo-express.com). IPO Profiler combines EDGAR Online’s IPO Express database with DR-LINK natural language search technology, a high-powered information retrieval system developed by Manning & Napier Information Services (MNIS). This technology is currently in use at the US Patent and Trademark office and in the competitive information departments of many major US corporations and was developed with the aid of DARPA, the defense department group responsible for the original development of the Internet.

Available for free to all EDGAR Online registered users, IPO Profiler permits individuals who write and analyze business plans to instantly compare the plan to companies that previously filed for IPOs.

Uses for IPO Profiler include:

Venture Capitalists researching a potential investment can analyze the competitive landscape by reviewing business models of similar companies.

Investment Bankers underwriting an IPO can search for comparable companies.

Entrepreneurs creating a business plan can investigate the business strategies, terminologies and financials of other like companies.

Securities Lawyers drafting IPO documents can search for precedent setting language in past filings.

Individual Investors considering investing in an IPO can research similar companies that have gone public.

“Our IPO Profiler tool combines true natural language search with the strength of our database to deliver a powerful tool for entrepreneurs, investment bankers, venture capitalists, securities lawyers and others,” said Susan Strausberg, CEO of EDGAR Online. “The possibilities for extracting business intelligence from SEC documents are limitless. By combining MNIS’ sophisticated DR-LINK technology with our IPO Express database, EDGAR Online has developed yet another service that delivers critical information to business professionals simply and cost-effectively.”

“We are pleased to have collaborated with EDGAR Online to develop a valuable business tool that uses our natural language search technology,” said Mike Colson, MNIS CEO. “We can’t think of a finer way to launch DR-LINK on the Internet than this exciting application with IPO Profiler.”

The new tool is simple and easy to use:

1) Once in IPO Express, click on the green IPO Profiler button

2) Type a public company ticker symbol in the “Quick Profile” box – the company’s business description will automatically be extracted into the IPO Profiler search box

3) Click “Search” to receive a list of S-1 filings of all comparable companies, in order of relevance

Individuals can also skip the “Quick Profile” section and enter any description directly in the IPO Profiler search box. Queries can be as simple as a few words or as complex as an entire passage from an existing document. IPO Profiler’s exclusive natural language search technology allows for complex searching of EDGAR Online’s database of over 4,000 IPO filings.

For a free trial of EDGAR Online, including IPO Express and the new IPO Profiler tool, go to http://www.edgar-online.com/ipoprofiler.

About EDGAR Online

EDGAR Online, Inc. (http://www.edgar-online.com and http://www.freeedgar.com and http://www.ipo-express.com) is a Web-based provider of business, financial and competitive information derived from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data. Additional services include value-added functions like IPO Express, a service that provides easy-to-use, detailed information on IPO filings, pricings and performance, EDGAR Online People (http://www.edgar-online.com/people), a service that allows users to conduct research on corporate executive and directors, and EDGAR Online Personal, which provides real-time Web and email based alerting, and other personalized advanced searches of SEC data.

Based in Norwalk, Connecticut, with offices in Kirkland, Washington and New York City, EDGAR Online, Inc. has strategic relationships with portal, business and financial information Web sites including Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS), Infoseek's GO Network (Nasdaq: SEEK), CNET's SNAP (Nasdaq: CNET), PointCast, Infospace (Nasdaq: INSP), CBS MarketWatch (Nasdaq: MKTW), SmartMoney.com (NYSE: DJ), CMPnet's TechInvestor, Hoover's (Nasdaq: HOOV), Motleyfool.com, Quote.com, Business Wire, Track Data (Nasdaq: TRAC), MSNBC Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and NBC/General Electric (NYSE: GE), Big Charts, and Raging Bull. For more information, please visit the Company’s Web site at http://www.edgar-online.com/news.

About DR-LINK

Developed by MNIS and its wholly owned R&D subsidiary, TextWise (a spin-off of Syracuse University), DR-LINK is the world's first intelligent online system that uses true Natural Language Processing (NLP) or plain English within its search queries.

This NLP system lets you ask questions in everyday language, and then returns context-rich documents that answer the implied nature of your question-even a complex one. Unlike Boolean and statistically based systems, DR-LINK looks beyond exact word matches and frequency of occurrences by understanding the vital underlying meaning of text.

About Manning & Napier Information Services (MNIS)

MNIS was founded in 1995 to deliver advanced information technologies to business, financial and government researchers. DR-LINK(TM) and MAPIT(TM), powerful data mining and analysis tools, are currently in use with the U.S. government intelligence community, and at major corporations, universities, intellectual property law firms, and patent offices around the world.

MNIS is affiliated with Manning & Napier Advisors (MNA), a leading Rochester-based investment management firm with more than $8 billion in assets under management. MNIS is headquartered in Rochester, NY, with additional offices in Buffalo and Syracuse, NY, Chicago, IL, Philadelphia, PA, Tampa Bay, FL, Washington, D.C., and London, England.

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