Natasha Lomas of Tech Crunch reports, “Imonomy, an Israeli startup which makes software that analyses webpages and automatically inserts relevant, copyright-free images to accompany the content, has closed a $400,000 seed round from a group of angel investors. Investors include Inon Axel, former CEO of Kasamba (acquired by LivePerson for $40m), Liron Rose, cofounder of AfterDownload (acquired by ironSource for $28m), and Itai Levitan and Tal Shaked, partners at AfterDownload. Imonomy said it will be using the new seed funding for product development and initial marketing and sales activities.” Read more

A new article reports, “Internet firm Info Edge, which owns job portal Naukri.Com, today said it has acquired software developer MakeSense Technologies for Rs 8 crore. ‘The Company has acquired MakeSense Technologies Private limited for about Rs 80 million,’ Info Edge said in a filing to the BSE. MakeSense Technologies has developed proprietary software for semantic search, which will augment search capabilities for both recruiters and job seekers, principally on the company’s portal Naukri.Com, it added.” Read more

Expert System recently announced, “ING DIRECT, the world’s largest online bank, has chosen its semantic software to optimize search and information retrieval on its customer portal atwww.ingdirect.it. Launched in June 2012, the new search portal helps customers quickly find the content they need, resulting in a 46% reduction in call center requests. The advanced semantic engine developed for ING DIRECT is a combination of two powerful semantic products: Cogito Search Explore Engine for semantic search and analysis, and Cogito Answers for natural language processing. Together, they bring a complete semantic and linguistic understanding to customer queries, taking into account variations in language such as slang or abbreviations, and result in the effective and immediate retrieval of answers to online requests.” Read more

Lee Feigenbaum recently argued that “semantic web software must be easy to use.” He explains, “On the surface, this sounds a bit trite. Surely we should demand that all software be easy to use, right? While ease of use is clearly an important goal in software design in general, I’d argue that it’s absolutely crucial to successfully realizing the value from Semantic Web software.” Read more

France-based startup Kwaga has raised $1.55 million in Series A funding: “The company, which received seed funding from Seedcamp and Kima Ventures after its founding in 2008, raised the money from unnamed private investors, advised by investment consultancy firm Financière Fonds Privés. Kwaga aims to build semantic software that will make us love email again and turn it into a productivity enhancer rather than killer by analyzing the data contained in messages.” Read more

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – June 23, 2010) –  Expert System, leading provider of semantic software that searches, discovers, classifies and interprets text information, today announces the official debut of the Semantic Valley Consortium…

Expert System, leading provider of semantic software that searches, discovers, classifies and interprets unstructured text information, today announces its COGITO(R) Answers mobile customer self-help solution has won the Global Mobile Award for the category of Best Billing or Customer Care Solution.