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7th Level Creates 1st Interactive, Animated, Talking Host For An Internet Search Engine Agent 7 Technology to Make Ask Jeeves 'Plain English' Search Engine Even Friendlier DALLAS, TEXAS, October 8, 1998 -7th Level, Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: SEVL) announced an agreement to create the first interactive, animated talking host for an Internet search engine portal. The agreement with Ask Jeeves, Inc. of Berkeley, CA, (www.askjeeves.com) calls for 7th Level to create an Agent 7 animated, talking Jeeves to make the user friendly "plain English" natural language search engine even friendlier. Terms were not disclosed. The talking Jeeves is expected to go "live" this week on the new Ask Jeeves for Kids site (www.ajkids.com). More than 220,000 questions are asked of Ask Jeeves and Ask Jeeves for Kids on a daily basis. Unlike other search engines, with Ask Jeeves users type in a question in plain English and then Ask Jeeves presents a list of matched questions (usually just a few). After the user selects the closest match, Jeeves takes them directly to a site that was selected by the Ask Jeeves research staff as being an appropriate answer to the question, avoiding dreaded responses such as "2348 matches to your query"! "As soon as kids get to Ask Jeeves for Kids, Jeeves will say a cheery hello and offer to explain how to use our search engine," said Penelope Finnie, Site Director and Executive Producer of Ask Jeeves and Ask Jeeves for Kids . "By clicking a few buttons, kids will be able to enter into a natural language dialog to learn about Jeeves, how he can help them surf the net, and other cool things." "Jeeves will have a 15-20 second animated response for each question," Finnie said. "As we go on, we plan to take advantage of Agent 7's ease-of-use to develop a rich database of animated responses, so that the site will become increasingly interactive between kids and Jeeves." Ask Jeeves joins a growing list of companies who have begun to use Agent 7 characters to add interactive personality and a call to action in order to increase the effectiveness of information, entertainment or other e-commerce driven websites. Agent 7 is a new kind of voice activated, internet software for making and running broadcast quality, lip-synched, re-usable animation on the web as well as from within major desktop applications. Users can change a character's dialog and animation by simply recording a voice track with a microphone plugged into a PC in order to make websites and standalone desktop presentations more effective and interactive. Richard Merrick, 7th Level CEO, said that with Agent 7's newly enhanced communications features, Ask Jeeves will be able to send a talking Jeeves in s to deliver messages directly to users. Or, he said, users can get their very own Jeeves, who will reside on their Windows 95/98 desktop and act as a personal search engine to make it even easier to find information on the Net. About Ask Jeeves, Inc.Incorporated in 1996 and based in Berkeley, California, Ask Jeeves, Inc. is the brainchild of David Warthen, CTO and veteran software developer, and Garrett Gruener, venture capitalist and founder of Virtual Microsystems. Roger Strauch and Dan Miller, co-founders of TCSI Corp. (NASDAQ: TCSI), joined the Ask Jeeves executive team last year. Rob Wrubel recently joined as President, coming from Cendant/Knowledge Adventure where he was COO. Besides providing an advertiser-supported public site at www.askjeeves.com, Ask Jeeves licenses its technology to organizations, that wish to make their web sites easier to navigate. Recent agreements were announced with Infonautics' Electric Library(tm) and InfoSpace. About 7th Level, Inc.7th Level, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEVL) is a developer of leading edge Internet software. In addition to Agent 7, the Company is developing a complete line of software products that provide intelligent templates, reusable content libraries and specialized analysis techniques to greatly reduce the effort and skills required to prepare rich media for delivery over the Internet. Agent 7 1.0 - which includes 10 ready to lip synch and animate characters -- can be purchased for $99 and downloaded quickly from 7th Level's e-commerce enabled website at www.7thlevel.com or from RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) at www.real.com. -- END -- 7th Level Contacts: Gary Fishman (gfish82403@aol.com) or Kim Boshara (kboshara@aol.com) at 212-527-4808 for 7th Level Investor Relations or Karin Olsen (amazonpr@earthlink.net) at 310-557-9642 for 7th Level Media Relations. Ask Jeeves Contacts: Rob Wrubel (rob@askjeeves.com) President at 510-649-3550 or Penelope Finnie (penny@askjeeves.com) Site Director and Executive Producer at 510-649-2185. Copyright 1998 7th Level, all rights reserved. |
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