By Eric Auchard
2 hours, 28 minutes ago
Powerset's technology breaks down the meaning of words and
sentences into related concepts, freeing users from always
needing to type the exact words they want to find.
The closely watched Silicon Valley start-up is offering a
way of searching millions of entries in Wikipedia's online
encyclopedia, helping users find detailed answers to questions
rather than isolated links that require further research.
For example, a user who wants to know how many wives King
Henry VIII had (six, or two, depending on your definition of
marriage) can find an answer via Powerset's service at
http://tinyurl/5qpcr9/.
San Francisco-based Powerset is looking to leapfrog the
current generation of services that rely on keyword searches
such as Google Inc, Yahoo Inc, Microsoft Corp and IAC
InterActiveCorp's Ask.
"The Wikipedia is becoming a microcosm of the most useful
parts of the Web," said Greg Sterling, an Internet analyst with
Sterling Market Intelligence. "This offers a powerful way to
find what you are looking for against this subset of the Web."
While still a far cry from letting users search the World
Wide Web, Powerset is using Wikipedia as a trial showcase for
how its technology can be used to search a vast number of other
websites using natural language phrases or questions.
Over time, it aims to partner with other high-quality data
sites where information can be organized in a question and
answer form that lends itself to Powerset search techniques.
Examples might include financial or patent filings, the CIA
Factbook or Wikipedia-inspired clones, company officials said.
Powerset, which can be found at http://www.powerset/,
looks beyond words to try to understand conceptual
relationships that get closer to what a user may be searching
for. It analyzes each sentence and whole documents to do so.
Powerset plans eventually to make money selling advertising
alongside its search services. But for now, the 60-employee
company consists almost entirely of computer scientists and
linguists. It has no advertising staff and only a handful of
marketing and support staff.
Sterling said it is likely to take years for Powerset to be
able to search the Web on the scale Google now does using
statistical ranking techniques to find relevant Web links.
"What I don't know is how Powerset will perform on the wide
open Web. In a sense, this is a massive prototype using the
relatively structured information of Wikipedia. It is difficult
to compare to what Google has built," Sterling said.
Sterling said a bigger danger to Google would be if rival
Microsoft were to acquire Powerset and incorporate it into
other search technologies it has. Recently, Microsoft backed
off a $44 billion bid for Yahoo to create a formidable rival to
Google in Web search and online advertising.
"This could become the basis of a Google-killer," Sterling
said. "Someone like Microsoft might want to buy Powerset."
Spokesmen for Microsoft and Powerset declined to comment on
rumors of a potential tie-up between the two companies.
FUN WITH "FACTZ"
Powerset offers richly annotated ways for searching inside
Wikipedia entries to find related concepts. Called "Factz,"
these related ideas generate outlines, summaries and automated
answers to users' questions.
processing technologySilicon Valleyconsumer Web search servicesnatural-language search interface
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
0 comments:
Post a Comment