Instead, it moved to Draper.

Why?

Located in the very south end of Salt Lake County, a company with offices in Draper can more easily draw employees from both Salt Lake and Utah counties.

That can be an important factor as the area's high-tech companies compete for staffers and try to lure sometimes scarce engineers and others to work for them.

"When we were down in southern Provo it was Utah County only," said Robert Vandenberg, president of Lingotek. "It was too far for folks from Salt Lake County to come."

Lingotek started just three years ago, incubated at the Novell Open Source Technology Center in Provo, which provides space and expertise to nurture startup companies. Now, as it has brought its software and services up to a level where it can start marketing and has define its initial markets, the company last month moved to its offices to West Scenic Point Drive just off Interstate 15.

"The Draper location is a nice central location," said Vandenberg, who became president of the company this month after serving as vice president of sales and marketing.

Cheryl Snapp Conner, managing partner of Snapp Conner PR, a public relations firm with employees from both counties and whose customers include high-tech businesses in both, said the centrality of Draper also was a factor in locating the firm's offices on Election Road there.

"We have people in Davis County as well as south Utah County, and this was the best location for us to be equally workable for all of those employees," she said, "as well as equally accessible for us to a client base that spans everything from Salem to Davis County."

For high-tech companies, the two counties represent labor bases, each anchored by the presence of a major university that turns out engineers and scientists. The University of Utah dominates Salt Lake County, with Brigham Young University churning out graduates in Utah County.

Lingotek has created a Web-based language translation program allowing it to be used anywhere by anyone. A unique feature is its ability to learn by storing past translations in its database and then drawing on that to help speed new translations of written text.

"The idea is as more language goes into it, more content, it gets smarter and more accurate," said Vandenberg.

Development of the program and of the company's market was spurred in part by support from the CIA. In-Q-Tel, a private venture capital company set up by the CIA, put more than $1 million into Lingotek, although the exact amount is secret.

That support from the CIA gave Lingotek legitimacy to sell its product to intelligence agencies. But it also has a potential market in businesses immersed in the vast globalized economy, where sales materials, product information, contracts and other business documents need to be translated.

Lingotek has 15 employees now but room to expand in its new office.

The company was started in 2005 by Aaron Davis, who is chief technology officer; Jeff Labrum, chief financial officer; and Tim Hunt, who is no longer with the company.

tharvey@sltrib.com