Federated Media Acquires TextDigger, Musgrove Named Chief Scientist

Federated Media has announced its acquisition of the core technology behind TextDigger, a search engine startup. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Launched as a project at a CNET incubator, TextDigger’s profiling technology platform is used to add semantics indexing on existing search engines. TextDigger later expanded and went on to raise over $5 million since first launching in 2005.

It’s TextDigger’s semantic technology that Federated Media is interested in, and will be taking on some of its staffers as part of the acquisition, including CEO Tim Musgrove. The TextDigger company will remain a separate entity.

For Federated Media, the acquisition of TextDigger is meant to expand its product offerings. As the blog ad network seeks growth, it looks to powerful, semantic search as a vehicle. MediaBeat notes Federated Media’s efforts so far,

“Battelle said Federated Media’s programs have become increasingly relied on technology modules, for example last year’s ExecTweets program that highlighted messages from top executives on Twitter.”

As semantic search better incorporates shared data from various sets, the extraction process naturally leads to better targeting channels across consumer markets. Federated Media will be able to grow the custom tools around its media marketing kits for publishers, with Musgrove as the new chief scientist. TextDigger will still have access to Musgrove as well, as he will remain on board as a senior fellow.

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