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In the beginning there was the PC. Users created information and stored information; and it was good. Then along came the Internet, which provided an easy outlet to publish and transport that information. Now what we have is a big darn mess.

With all of the content we create, store, share, and publish in a year, it's a wonder we can find anything. Too often we don't even bother to find information, we simply create it again. This is essentially why Google is a darling of Wall Street. The company's philosophy is to make the world's information available and useful. It's a Herculean task, and Google is far from the only one trying.

Back in February, we took a look at Watson, a search tool developed by Chicago-based Intellext that works by examining what you're doing on your computer (when you're using Microsoft Office applications) and locating relevant information from any number of sources: Web sites, blogs, enterprise search applications, subscription content services, search engines, and intranets. Wherever that information is hiding, Watson looks for it based on what you're doing.

After taking a look at how users used version 1.0 of Watson, Intellext has released a beta of version 2.0.

"What we're trying to do with this is foster content re-use," said Intellext founder and CTO Jay Budzik. As we create content on our PCs, we don't know what we don't know. The end result is we spend time creating content that already exists or creating content that leaves out the finer points of a subject.

Budzik, who holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern, has a background working with artificial intelligence (AI). So it comes as no surprise that Watson is based on questions of AI that Budzik studied in the past, such as: How do people think? How do people understand language?

When speaking to someone, we make predictions about what they will say as we converse. Watson works in much the same way. "Watson predicts what you need by looking at what you're doing," Budzik told Intranet Journal.

In Watson 1.0, the software quietly searched in the background for information relevant to what you were doing in Microsoft Office. When you took a break, Watson asked you if you wanted to see what it found. Watson 2.0 isn't quite as polite, but it stops short of being an annoyance to users who just aren't in the Watson mood at the time.

In version 2.0, Intellext brought the information Watson found right into the application you're working in, so users don't have to switch applications or views. A mouseover of the search results gives users a brief preview. All links open in a new window.

Watson 2.0 bring search results relevant to your work in Microsoft Office right into the application. Here, Watson locates information of RFID related to a PowerPoint presentation and presents the results on the right.

"What we tried to do is make all information from Watson available as you work," Budzik said. When getting ready to work on version 2.0, Intellext examined how Watson users utilized version 1.0. What it found was one class of users using Watson information more often. Further research discovered those users had larger screens or used multiple displays. One Watson power user had a laptop with an additional external screen.

Intellext wanted to bring that user experience to all of its Watson users. At the same time, Watson 2.0 was developed so it could be minimized to the system tray and out of the users' way. "Our philosophy in general is to provide users all the power we can," Budzik said.

The second major part of Watson 2.0 is a GUI that makes it easy to configure and create connectors. This allows users to easily configure Watson to search places they care about. Categories can be created for Watson results based on where Watson finds the information — Web, News, Blog, etc. Users who want to add a Military category can ask Watson to include results from all .mil sites, for example.

"This introduces a lot of power to users," Budzik said. Users can even configure Watson to search competitors' Web sites and categorize the results.

Watson can also be pointed to internal content. Another new addition is a connector to Google Search Appliance, which allows users to easily include content indexed by their Google Search Appliance.

In a crowded market full content management and search applications to make sense of all the information we've created, Watson is carving out an interesting niche. Budzik said he considers Watson non-competitive with enterprise search vendors because Watson doesn't index information. Rather, Watson works with such tools to enhance how their results are displayed. It is agnostic as to where the information lives.

Autonomy does have a product called Active Windows Extension, which offers similar functionality to Watson in that it searches for results as you work, but it only searches content in your company's Autonomy system.

Watson, meanwhile, will look for content anywhere. Not only does that open more information to users, but in an IT environment where multiple content management and enterprise search applications may be in place, Watson provides a way to get all the information in one place. And that place happens to be next to you as you work.

Watson 2.0 is in beta now and Intellext expects a general release at the end of the summer. It costs $99 per user, per year, for individual users. Enterprise customers can expect to pay about $200 per seat license and 20 percent annual maintenance. Volume discounts are available.

Watson 2.0 uses a simple GUI to add content sources and categorize search results.