Paul Gardi is the former president and chief operating officer of Teoma Technologies, Inc., a provider of next generation Web search technology. Teoma was acquired by Ask Jeeves in September 2001. Started by scientists at Rutgers University, Teoma has been hailed in recent months by industry experts as "the next big thing in search engines" and described as "running rings around" other search engines. Teoma's technology uniquely divides the Web into natural communities and analyzes topic-specific Web content to dynamically generate the most relevant and authoritative search results. Ask Jeeves is integrating Teoma's search technology across its Web Properties, including Ask.com and the DirectHit Network. Additionally, Ask Jeeves will operate Teoma.com, which is currently in beta, as a stand-alone Web property, maintaining the site as a pure search engine.