, MatchPoint is the first search application that allows public relations professionals to find journalists based on their cumulative body of work. Users simply copy a press release, pitch letter or keywords into a search box. MatchPoint then searches a database of three million articles from 11,000 print publications, 25,000 Web sites and 10,000 bloggers to produce a weighted ranking of the most relevant journalists. Voila: fewer press releases sent to the wrong person.

MatchPoint is cool. If I were just starting out in public relations or trying to find receptive writers for a new product, it might be useful. Just plop in your press release and, like magic, out pops a list of journalists who, at least in theory, should be interested based on what they've written in the past.

However, results were uneven; As the site's FAQ warns, MatchPoint should be used to complement an existing contact database, and not be used as a primary tool.

I copied a few old news releases I had lying around in my in-box, each search producing a healthy list of 30 or more journalists, most of whom looked like good matches. However, accuracy was off in places. For instance, at one point I was listed as a writer for Network World, including an East Coast phone number and a circulation department's e-mail address. (Network World republishes my PC World stuff, but I live in California.) A bigger problem is that MatchPoint does not seem to deliver on the body-of-work promised. I inexplicably was missing from the results for "notebook computers," though I've been reviewing laptops for for the last 10 years.

Just for fun, I tried some other keywords. Not that Barack Obama needs more exposure, but MatchPoint recommends Dr. John Sullivan of Workforce Management Magazine. Huh? For green PCs: Karen Bemoski of Windows and .Net magazine in Colorado. I did get good results for "Facebook": Wailin Wong of the Chicago Tribune, who's done lots of Facebook articles and for an obviously desirable publication.