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Energy and Biotech Modules Added to Dialog1 Service, Expanding Coverage of Key Vertical Markets in Easy-to-Use Format

CARY, N.C., USA (September 28, 2001) -- Dialog Corporation, a Thomson business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services, announced today the addition of energy and biotech modules to its Dialog1 (www.dialog1.com) online service, the company's easy-to-use Web-based information service for business professionals.

Today's announcement brings the total number of information modules available in Dialog1 to seven. The others are Business Intelligence, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Pharmaceuticals, and World News.

Dialog offers a family of information services designed for different types of business information users and markets. The Dialog1 service, with its form-driven, question-and-answer search query system, is geared toward professionals who directly use online information services.

Dialog1 is divided into a series of modules grouped by industries or information categories, and includes built-in searching tools that prompt users to drill into relevant sections of Dialog's vast and continuously updated information reservoir.

By making Dialog1 directly available to end users within corporations for their day-to-day business knowledge and competitive intelligence requirements, information professionals using other and more advanced Dialog services can concentrate on complicated and in-depth research assignments that require their sophisticated information management skills.

"We recognize that 'one size fits all' doesn't work in today's information market," said Roy M. Martin Jr., Dialog Corporation president and CEO. "Both information professionals and end users need to harness resources that best serve their missions. Our strategy is to listen to our customers and to make changes on any of our services as its users require. You'll see many more enhancements, on Dialog1 and all of our products, in the months ahead."

The two Dialog1 modules announced today were developed based on feedback from customers, including both information professionals and end users.

DIALOG1 ENERGY

The new Dialog1 Energy module offers access to leading news, research, and regulatory information collected from publishers, research firms, government authorities, third-party database producers, and others active in the international energy industry.

The module is divided into six sections that focus on segments of the energy industry: Alternative Energy, Coal, Nuclear, Petrochemical, Petroleum and Utilities. A seventh section, called Industry Intelligence, enables a one-click global search of all content relevant to the energy industry.

An example of the powerful, behind-the-scenes features available through Dialog1 Energy is the ability for users to retrieve chemical name synonyms and launch a search based on those synonyms in different energy databases.

DIALOG1 BIOTECH

The new Dialog1 Biotech module offers access to leading industry, patent, news, research, and regulatory information in the biotechnology market. Dialog1 Biotech is divided into four sections: News and Industry, Patents, Regulatory Information, and Research and Development.

Dialog1 Biotech's features include the ability to retrieve patents that are related to gene sequences from patent databases, such as the U.S. Patents Fulltext Database and Derwent World Patent Index.

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About Dialog
Dialog is the worldwide leader in providing online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law. Its products and services, such as Dialog®, Profound® and DataStar™, offer organizations the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 800 million unique records, accessible via the Internet or through delivery to enterprise Intranets. For almost three decades, Dialog's brands have been known for their breadth and depth of content, precision searching and speed. The Winter Corporation recently recognized Dialog for its breadth and depth of content when they named the company the Grand Prize-winner in the Database Scalability Program 2000.

Headquartered in Cary, N.C., USA, with direct operations in 30 countries, Dialog products are used by more than 20,000 corporate customers in over 100 countries. Dialog is a subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation, a leading global e-information and solutions company in the business and professional marketplace with 2000 revenues of approximately $6 billion. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto (TSE:TOC) and London stock exchanges.

For more information about Dialog, call 1-800-3-DIALOG or visit www.dialog.com. For more information about Thomson, visit www.thomson.com.

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All designated trademarks used herein are the property of The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries. Registered marks are registered by The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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