iMarket EARNS PATENT FOR B2B DB MATCHING TECHNOLOGY

iMarket Inc, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing data, announced that it has been awarded an industry patent (U.S. Patent ##6,026,398) in recognition of its unique interactive database matching technology. Delivered online by zapdata.com, the company's Internet business unit, and via its award-winning MarketPlace software suite, the technology allows for the rapid integration of data from dozens of premier data providers to create one comprehensive B2B data source.

"Our matching technology is a powerful tool," says Doug Borchard, vice president of iMarket Inc and general manager of zapdata.com. "It empowers our customers to quickly and rapidly create custom databases on which to build ROIdriven marketing campaigns and enables our partners to quickly generate additional revenue through data versioning. No other solution provides such strong results so quickly and easily."

The matching technology uses "neural-net" fuzzy logic to integrate data despite errors and omissions. It matches inverted addresses, incorrect or variant spellings, and telephone numbers with different extensions. It will also match a company's secondary name or an address or zip code with a missing number.

Using the matching engine, customers can match their in-house databases against the iMarket/zapdata.com database to rapidly remove duplicates and enhance customer/lead files with firmographic data such as SICs, number of employees, annual sales, ownership information, and more. Previously, customers bought multiple lists from multiple vendors, which they then forwarded to a data processing center to combine them and remove duplicates, with no mechanism in place to enhance the records.

In addition, the matching engine enables partners to integrate their internal database with iMarket's, resulting in the creation of a new version of their database. Versioning provides iMarket partners, such as Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence, an unprecedented opportunity to infiltrate new markets.

"iMarket's matching technology allows Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence to layer our TechModel data on top of iMarket's integrated database to create simple and seamless custom information solutions," said Larry Friedberg, vice president of e-business for Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence, which supplies IT and telecommunications models and data to iMarket. "Through iMarket, we can offer our fresh, accurate technology information to a whole new group of customers we aren't reaching. The results are customer delight and an incremental revenue stream for Harte-Hanks."

About iMarket and zapdata.com

iMarket Inc, headquartered in Waltham, Mass., is a leading provider of business-to-business sales and marketing tools delivered through the premier MarketPlace software suite and the award-winning zapdata.com e-commerce site. zapdata.com partners include, IBM, Lycos, inc.com, iNiku.com, and MarketFirst Software. A privately held company founded in 1991, iMarket is a recipient of the Crossroads 2000 A-List Award and the 1999 MIMC Award for Best Business-toBusiness Sales Multimedia Title. zapdata.com has received the Willy Award 2000 for the best tactical sales force automation and a Selling Power Top 150 Award. Used by more than 50,000 customers, MarketPlace and zapdata.com offer products and services with a breadth and depth of data that allow customers to obtain the information they need, exactly when they need it, to drive the success of their sales and marketing efforts. iMarket is the only company that integrates multiple sources of B2B data into easy-to-use software and online products and services.

Information about iMarket can be found at www.imarketinc.com or by calling 800-590-0065. For more information about zapdata.com, or to become a data partner, visit our Web site at www.zapdata.com or send e-mail to info@zapdata.com.

Contact iMarket Inc, Jennifer Sprague 781-672-9252 jsprague@imarketinc.com.