PodZinger, the only audio and video search engine that enables full-text results (www.podzinger.com), today announced it has closed on $5 million in financing from parent company BBN Technologies. BBN is an advanced technology solutions firm known for its networking expertise, including the development of ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet. PodZinger will use the funding to grow its consumer-facing Web site; add to the roster of companies that leverage the power of PodZinger to fuel their audio and video search; and continue expansion of recruiting and marketing initiatives in order to meet demand for services. In connection with the financing, PodZinger has moved into new headquarters based in Cambridge, Mass.

"PodZinger exemplifies BBN's goal to develop and bring to market new business opportunities from BBN's breakthrough technologies." said Tad Elmer, president and CEO, BBN Technologies. "We established the BBN Delta Division to exploit opportunities to leverage these technologies in the commercial sector. The creation of PodZinger is a major milestone along that path."

The recent funding reflects the rapid proliferation of online content and the success PodZinger has achieved in becoming the premier search provider of online multimedia content. "BBN's investment enables PodZinger to function as an independent company and aggressively pursue growth opportunities," said Alex Laats, chairman and chief executive officer, PodZinger. "Online advertising is fueled by relevant search, and Internet advertising opportunities are growing at record pace. Previously, audio and video has been a black space that cannot be discovered by the traditional search engines. PodZinger's unique ability to find the relevant words and provide direct access to the location of those words in audio and video content will be a critical enabler of online advertising for audio and video."

As more and more advertising dollars are funneled away from traditional media and directed online-at a steady 30 percent-plus growth rate over the past two years-search has emerged as the leading recipient for those dollars. Search delivers a level of reach, relevance, and targeting not possible through more traditional marketing methods. PodZinger's ability to find the relevant content inside each audio and video search enables marketers and advertisers to tailor their messages and deliver higher relevance and targeted, more compelling content to consumers resulting in better online marketing effectiveness, improved brand awareness and consumer loyalty.

PodZinger uses speech recognition technology to create a text index of the audio, which enables users to find content anywhere within both audio and video podcasts and jump directly to the point where their keyword is spoken. From the PodZinger site, users can also subscribe to podcasts, download or listen to them, and even have PodZinger automatically deliver new podcasts on their own topics of interest using standard RSS feeds.

About PodZinger PodZinger is powered by BBN Technologies, leveraging its 30 years of speech recognition research to transform multimedia content into searchable words. PodZinger opens up a previously untapped source of content via a simple Web search. So when it comes to finding what you want in audio and video... just ZING IT!

New Company Headquarters Address: 10 Fawcett Street Cambridge, Mass. 02138

About BBN Technologies BBN Technologies, an advanced technology and research and development firm, is focused on solving some of the world's most pressing problems. From national security, information security, and speech recognition, to integrating disparate systems and networks, BBN has been at the forefront of technological change for over 50 years.