OpenFran Unveils New Search Method Providing More Public Franchising Knowledge In Less Time And Cost

Innovative New Service Saves Time and Money By Easily Locating Relevant Franchising Information and Content

Phoenix, Ariz. -- OpenFran (www.openfran.org), the revolutionary franchising information search solution, today announced the public invite-beta of a disruptive new search service designed for franchising professionals, investors, and consumers that rely on the Internet for gaining knowledge and a competitive edge. The private invite-only beta release of the service has already been embraced by hundreds of users since the announcement less than a week ago and has received worldwide acclaim across the franchising landscape. Once released from private-beta, the service will be available to anyone wanting an efficient solution to search, analyze and share franchising related content. OpenFran eliminates the need for manual searches for relevant information and paying for otherwise public domain materials - reducing cost while increasing productivity.

“Online Library Revolutionizes Franchise Investigation”

OpenFran acts as an intelligent archive engine, word-level indexing formally “image only” content, combing the Web for newly posted germane materials in an efficient and timely fashion, and archiving documents provided by community members. OpenFran addresses some of the biggest limitations of the franchising marketplace – due diligence, competitive, and scholarly research. The archive already boasts over 3.2 million pages of fully searchable content.

OpenFran achieves this using its custom search technology, which gives users search sensitivity, scoring and relevance controls over vast amounts of information. Users simply create custom Boolean searches that can locate items like company names, terms, people and any other specific information they might be looking for from a variety of public sources. Users can then download and review documents in the universal PDF format.

The Software-as-a-Service architecture is designed for self-service and scalability, and is available at absolutely no charge for unlimited searches and document downloads. Additionally, the site will offer non-watermarked, internally text searchable (through the PDF reader search) versions of each document for $1 for small documents (1-10 pages) and $8 for large documents such as UFOC’s and FDD’s. OpenFran will also offer power users the ability to establish unlimited or “all you can use” download access to non-watermarked, world-level searchable document versions by donating to the site’s parent entity, The Open Franchise Foundation, a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization.

OpenFran Benefits

Open is a powerful and completely free indexing, search and download service that helps professionals, investors, scholars and consumers stay "in-the-know" and on top of franchising related information. With OpenFran anyone can:

* Monitor and search the entire database of CALEASI (The California repository of franchise document filings) since 2002 along with other documents submitted by public sources.

* Download documents found on OpenFran directly to your desktop.

* Mash-up all of their online franchising content sources into one monitoring service

* Instantly increase their research efficiency by being directed only to those documents that meet certain search criteria and filters.

* Leverage advanced search technology to score documents based on relational, contextual relevance, enabling users to locate the most relevant and credible information.

* Finally, afford the highest level of DIY competitive intelligence and due diligence research without the high price tag.

"OpenFran’s search technology is very impressive," said Don Sniegowski, founder and editor of the industry news site, Bluemaumau. "It filters out a lot of the noise, allowing me to focus in on the information that I am seeking. OpenFran’s intelligent interface helps me do my job more effectively while saving a tremendous amount of time and money."

Susan A. Maizner, Executive Director of The Open Franchise Foundation commented, "OpenFran was based on a very simple idea – there had to be a better way, a better mouse-trap if you will, to help people quickly find what they are looking for inside all of these franchising related documents. Like many others, I was having difficulty conducting some very basic research. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find that the expensive solutions often only addressed a portion of the problem and the “free” library sites were limited at best. We are very excited to offer a free service like OpenFran to the masses and to solve this pain for the franchising community."

Michael Webster, a franchise attorney who frequently searches financial and legal documents of franchise systems and who is an online publisher himself, observes of the new tool, "OpenFran promises to revolutionize the pre-purchase investigation of franchise opportunities. Researchers and attorneys now have a very affordable access to not just the scanned documents, but documents which are searchable. This is a fantastic project which will benefit the franchise community, researchers and regulators."

Planned Features

* Incorporation of other “Registration States” document libraries into the OpenFran archive.

* International expansion. Provide the OpenFran technologies and benefits to users in “emerging franchising nations” like Australia, China and The United Kingdom.

* Receive automated "briefings" of new documents that contain user-defined keywords via email.

Support and Sponsorship Opportunities

OpenFran is entirely funded by the generous support of friends of franchise openness. The Open Franchise Foundation, a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, accepts monetary and material donations. All funds are used to support the OpenFran mission of improving the availability of franchise related materials and increasing education and research programs that promote franchise openness. OpenFran donors receive exclusive site exposure opportunities, participation in search keyword sponsorship and unlimited access to all areas of the web site. Check out www.openfran.org for more information on how you can support franchise openness.

Pricing and Availability

There is no cost for searching for and the downloading of any archived document in PDF. Non-watermarked, internally text searchable (through the PDF reader search) versions of each document will be made available at $1 for small documents (1-10 pages) and $8 for large documents such as UFOC’s and FDD’s. OpenFran will also offer power users the ability to establish unlimited or “all you can use” download access to non-watermarked, searchable document versions when they become a “Friend of Franchise Openness” sponsor.

To stay in touch with OpenFran news, including details of the latest enhancements, visit http://www.openfran.org

About OpenFran

OpenFran is the archive search service of choice for savvy franchising industry professionals. The Web-based service allows users to search, filter and share online content quickly and reliably. OpenFran avoids information overload and eliminates the need for expensive downloads and time consuming “Battleship” searches, saving both time and money while increasing productivity and knowledge. Global users already rely upon OpenFran to gain a competitive edge. Are you ready for the OpenFran Revolution? Go to www.openfran.org, request a beta-account, and then conduct an unlimited, free search and find what you're looking for within minutes.

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Contact: Susan Maizner
Executive Director, The Open Franchise Foundation
A 501(c)(3) Entity

p: 480-264-0050
e: info at openfran.org
w: http://www.openfran.org