Orkan is a powerful search engine, developed specifically for telephone directories. It is capable of providing precise and rapid response to simple queries given in a single search field, i.e. full-text search. That even if the query is mis-spelled, shuffled and imprecise.

The combination of tolerance and precision is crucial for one field input based search as web and SMS-based telephone directories. In such services, the users input can not be validated before it is submitted and users can not be expected to format their search in any particular way. This requires a high degree of tolerance on the part of the search engine. Results with SMS are limited to a mere 160 characters per message, and the answer must be correct the first time, so it needs to be extremely precise.

In Norway, Findexa installed the first Orkan-based SMS directory in 2001. It is probably the most used SMS service in Norway today.

The largest installation to date is the German directory on SMS (11833), installed by t-info for Deutsche Telekom in 2004. Orkan has very strong Local Search features and is used in internet services, manual directory assistance, yellow pages and CD-ROM distributions.