Tools Help Developers Worldwide Leverage Features of Microsoft Search Server 2008

SEATTLE, Wash.—March 2, 2008—Ascentium Corporation, a leading interactive marketing and technology consultancy, announced today, on the eve of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference, the release of two new search tools: Search Center Branding Removal and ASP.NET Search Controls respectively. The tools are part of a larger Search Community Toolkit on CodePlex, the Microsoft open source project hosting web site. An official Microsoft Search Server 2008 partner, Ascentium worked closely with the Microsoft product team to develop easy-to-use tools that rapidly enable the entire global search community to build well-tailored search solutions faster.

Posting the new tools on CodePlex makes them immediately available to a global community of experts and those seeking to learn more about how to leverage the Microsoft enterprise search platform. A collection of specialized search aids and best practices championed by the Microsoft product team in cooperation with Ascentium and other thought leaders in search technologies worldwide, the Search Community Toolkit is published on CodePlex at http://www.codeplex.com/sct.

The new search tools were developed and published by the Ascentium U.K. team led by Tony Sloggett, director at Ascentium and founder of the CMS.RAPID global community and RAPID for SharePoint Products and Technologies respectively. The Search Center Branding Removal tool is available at http://www.codeplex.com/sctbrt, and ASP.NET Search Controls is available at http://www.codeplex.com/sctsc.

These search tools will continue a tradition of the developer community advancing successful Microsoft-powered solutions and will help developers quickly tailor intuitive search interfaces. ASP.NET Search Controls will facilitate quick search enablement capabilities for any .NET application that interfaces with Search Server 2008 and/or Office SharePoint Server 2007. Ultimately, the Ascentium-sponsored search tools and other components of the Search Community Toolkit will help teams save time creating high-quality search interfaces and will increase the quality of search experiences and results.

“Fundamentally, Ascentium believes in delivering rich Web-based experiences that help our customers grow their businesses,” said Tony Sloggett. “The Search Community Toolkit will hopefully help facilitate that on a massive scale. Our two Search Community Toolkit contributions represent our continued commitment to help quickly drive broad technology adoption and encourage the sharing of best practices among a very dedicated and fast growing SharePoint Server 2007 community.”

“We commend the search technology thought leadership and strong community spirit demonstrated by the Ascentium team,” said Jared Spataro, Group Product Manager for Search Server. “Tools like these will help teams around the world harness the power of our platform to successfully deliver highly usable and effective search solutions. We look forward to continuing to work together on future joint community projects.”

About Ascentium Corporation
Ascentium Corporation (www.ascentium.com) is an interactive marketing and technology consultancy that delivers award-winning experiences, products, and information-driven business solutions to achieve its clients’ strategic objectives. Making Inc. magazine’s list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. for the past three years, Ascentium continues to see substantial growth in customer relationship management, digital marketing, Web initiatives, enterprise content management, systems integration, custom development, customer relationship management, and strategic business engagements. The company’s clients include Boeing, Dell, Expedia, InfoSpace, Microsoft, Motorola, Nike and Providence Health Systems. Ascentium is headquartered in Bellevue, with offices in London; Los Angeles; Baltimore; Spokane, Wash; Portland, Ore; and Austin, Texas.

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Contact:
Leah Clelland, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Cell phone: 425 894 1847
E-mail: leah.clelland@ascentium.com