WebProNews

A licensing deal with Basis Technology extended the existing agreement Microsoft had in place for using the multilingual Rosette platforms on MSN Search.

The Rosette technology from Basis performs analysis that let applications like search engines comprehend queries in foreign languages. Basis said in a statement that Microsoft has licensed Rosette as part of its Asian expansion plans.

"Multilingual search continues to be a top priority for MSN, and our prior success with Basis Technology's software made Rosette the natural choice for our Chinese and Japanese search systems", Justin Osmer, Product Manager at MSN, said in the article.

Microsoft and Basis have been working together since late 2004, when Microsoft first licensed the Rosette Linguistic platform for the beta version of MSN Search. A host of other big name companies use Rosette, including Google, Cisco, and HP, as well as several governments.

Rosette's role in government includes intelligence analysis. A report the Military Information Technology website said the US Defense Intelligence Agency uses Rosette. That's not too surprising, considering that Basis Technology received investments from the In-Q-Tel venture capital firm, which is funded by the CIA and other parts of the intelligence community.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.