For the past four months, online travel site Travelocity.com LP has been testing new natural-language search functionality from AskJeeves that makes it easier for customers to navigate the Travelocity Web site and quickly find information they need.

For example, a user types a name into the search feature on the site to find a particular hotel. Previously, the user had to access the Travelocity Web site, drill down to its hotel-booking engine, and type the name of the hotel along with travel dates. If the hotel was sold out, the search engine wouldn't direct the user to the hotel's Web page. Now, regardless of availability, users can search for the hotel from the Travelocity home page.

New features in JeevesOne Enterprise that enable the advanced-search functionality include the ability to filter and interrelate specific data elements from disparate sources, and the ability to pull data from enterprise applications, data marts, legacy systems, intranets, partner extranets, and Internet resources. The application leverages Web Services standards, which include Simple Object Access Protocol and XML, as well as Java 2 Enterprise Edition and LDAP protocols. It'll also run on the Solaris platform.

With the new search technology, users no longer have to scroll through options on a search results page but instead are directed to a specific page for the information they need. However, if the page doesn't provide the information, a link at the top of the page will then direct them to a search results page.

Pricing for JeevesOne Enterprise starts at $155,000. It will become generally available next week.