DLG Direct Line Insurance Group Plc

RNS No 7789v
DIALOG CORPORATION PLC
2nd July 1998


                                       
          The Dialog Corporation unveils National Exporters Database
         in conjunction with the UK's Department of Trade and Industry



London,  2  July  1998:  The  UK's  first ever  Government-supported  National
Exporters  Database was launched today on the Internet. The database  will  be
operated  by  The  Dialog Corporation plc on behalf of the DTI  and  comprises
phase one of an expanded TradeUK project.

The  database,  which  utilises The Dialog Corporation's proprietary  InfoSort
indexing technology and Muscat's search engine, has an initial 52,000 entries,
and  this is expected to increase as the service becomes more widely marketed.
From  September  TradeUK  will also incorporate  other  services  including  a
revised  Export  Sales  Leads Service which will deliver  leads  from  Foreign
Office commercial staff abroad to UK exporters via the Internet.


Dan  Wagner, Chief Executive of The Dialog Corporation said: "We are delighted
to  have  been  chosen to operate the TradeUK National Exporters  Database  on
behalf  of  the  DTI.  The Dialog Corporation is well placed  to  provide  the
technological  expertise  and business intelligence  necessary  for  this  new
initiative.  British  exporters  will  now  have  the  competitive   advantage
available  from this combination of Internet technology and high value  market
data.   The  DTI has made a substantial investment on behalf of all  British
companies  involved in international export and we are sure that  the  project
will  prove  to  be a success. The sight received 3500 hits within  the  first
three hours of being switched on yesterday and continued to receive over  1000
hits per hour throughout the day."

In  a  press release issued today, the DTI welcomed the launch of the  TradeUK
National   Exporters  Database,  as  a  prime  example  of  the   Government's
determination and commitment to see UK firms take advantage of the significant
advances in information technology, especially the Internet. They commissioned
this  database  to  give  any firm, no matter how big or  small,  an  Internet
presence  in  order  to help them become more competitive in  an  increasingly
global market.

The  database will enable any UK exporter to have, free of charge, a  detailed
entry  on  a database which potentially can be seen by any buyer in the  world
who  is  on the Internet and by Foreign Office staff sourcing UK suppliers  of
goods and services to meet requirements in their markets.


                                       
Enquiries:

Sara Parker                             (+44) 171 930 6900
Head of Corporate Communications        sara_parker@dialog.com
The Dialog Corporation

Tracey Johnston                         (+44) 171 930 6900
PR Manager                              tracey_johnston@dialog.com
The Dialog Corporation

John Olsen/James Longfield              (+44) 171 357 8533
The Hogarth Partnership                 jolsen@hogarthpartnership.co.uk
for The Dialog Corporation              jlongfield@hogarthpartnership.co.uk




Notes to Editors
The Dialog Corporation plc
www.dialog.com

The  Dialog  Corporation  is  a  leading provider  of  professional  online
information   following  the  merger  of  MA.I.D  plc   and   Knight-Ridder
Information  Inc.   The  Dialog  Corporation  brands  include  the  DIALOG,
DataStar and Profound range of products and services.  These brands provide
comprehensive,  authoritative  sources  of  information  to   professionals
worldwide.  The Dialog Corporation has world headquarters in London and  is
traded on the NASDAQ (DIALY) and the London Stock Exchange (DLG).

InfoSort (trademark)
InfoSort is The Dialog Corporation's proprietary indexing system. The database
creation process uses specialised software and rule bases to ensure the
classification of each document meets the standards of the InfoSort thesauri.
This permits a seamless search across a wide range of information sources.


Muscat Limited
http://www.muscat.com
Muscat is a leading European provider of information indexing and retrieval
software for corporate applications.  Its Muscat FX product is a powerful,
open and scalable software environment for indexing and searching multiple
document types and data formats, across the enterprise and beyond. The product
provides its search capabilities through an intuitive natural language
interface supporting probabilistic and Boolean retrieval techniques, and
allows documents to be indexed from local webservers, across multiple WWW
sites and corporate Intranet servers.

Muscat was founded in 1991, bringing the results of computing linguistics
research undertaken at Cambridge University to a commercial audience. Muscat
now has thousands of users world-wide at over 250 companies.  Muscat Limited,
including its research and development centre, is headquartered in Cambridge,
UK.


DTI
The new National Exporters Database comes on-line today and can be accessed at
the following web address: http://www.tradeuk.com

1.    The  DTI announced on the 24 February 1998 the award of the contract  to
 the  Dialog  Corporation  plc to set up and operate  the  National  Exporters
 Database and the new Export Sales Lead Service.  Dialog will be working  with
 ICL  as  sub-contractor to exploit ICL's original TradeUK project  under  the
 Information Society Initiative.


The Export Sales Lead Service will harness the Internet to alert UK companies
to export opportunities around the world.  It will include an automatic
alerting service to ensure that information about the markets and products in
which a company is interested will be e-mailed to them automatically. The
basic service will be free at the point of delivery. There will be no advance
subscription charge. Leads will be posted on the Internet and will be complete
except, in certain instances, for the contact details which, on up to 5
occasions per month, can be downloaded for no charge. There will be a charge
for those requiring more than the free allocation. When firms who are members
of a bona fide Trade Association join the service they will be entitled to a
larger number of free contact details if their TA is a member of TradeUK.


Press Enquiries: 0171-215 5976/5960
(Out-of-Hours: 0171-215 5600/5110)
Text Phone for those with hearing impairments: 0171-215 6740
Public Enquiries: 0171-215 5000



END

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