The Security and Exchange Commission has used one tool to help investors find SEC filings since the 1980s. Its name was EDGAR and it was considered by many to be crude and difficult to use. The SEC announced on Tuesday that it would be introducing a new system, dubbed IDEA, to replace EDGAR as a tool to help investors find the information they need from regulatory filings.

IDEA will supplement EDGAR to start and eventually replace it altogether. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said at a press conference that the new system will give investors faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds. Unlike EDGAR, IDEA will use data-tagging software to sort financial data.

“This is not just a new name for EDGAR, this is a fundamental change in the way the SEC collects, manages and distributes information,” Mr. Cox told a news conference on Tuesday. Mr. Cox has been well known for embracing new technologies in an attempt to update the SEC's databases and make them more accessible for investors.

The move comes after the SEC's push for public companies to begin reporting under the so-called extensible business reporting language, or XBRL, protocol. This protocol uses digital tags attached to each piece of financial data to allow investors to easily find and compare key figures. The largest public companies may be forced to file in XBRL in early 2009, according to the SEC.

IDEA will be provided free of charge to the public, like EDGAR, and is expected to be available starting later htis year. Meanwhile, the SEC said that EDAR filings will continue for the indefinite future.