RSSPowerset previews search engine seen as threat to Google, Yahoo
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published May 12, 2008, 5:40 PM
In a newly-opened online showcase, search engine specialist Powerset is now previewing a contextual search engine seen by some as a possible threat to Google, Yahoo and other major players through its support for "conversational phrasing."
Although right now, Powerset queries Wikipedia only, rumors are circulating that investment bank Allen & Co. is shopping the emerging natural language search engine to potential buyers that might even include Microsoft, which decided to drop its recent attempt to take over Yahoo.
Unlike the search engines of Web sites like Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com, for example, Powerset does not rely on keyword searches.
Instead, users submit their queries as questions that don't necessarily need to include keywords. Like traditional search engines the results are returned as URL links, often accompanied by pieces of text from the linked pages.
With the Powerset search engine, however, the answer is often included directly within the search results. Users can expand the result to see the full text with pertinent sentences highlighted.
To get a better understanding of how the natural language engine works, BetaNews today typed in the question, "Where is the Chesapeake Bay?"
In response to our query, Powerset came up with what seems like a decent answer directly within the first of the more than 2.600 links provided. Here is the Wikpedia text included in the first answer in Powerset's response to the query:
"The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. ... The north end of the oligohaline zone is north Baltimore and the south end is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge."
But the accuracy of results obviously varies according to the query, especially with Wikipedia being the only source for the time being. And when we asked Powerset to give us a definition of the oligohaline zone, we were simply told it contains "very little salt."
yo bro waz happen
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|sounds like a good idea except you will dress it up and peddle it to a guy with big bucks
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|What a great article Jacqueline.
Why shouldn't the internet have search engines that use differing criteria - isn't progress created by competition?
It has long been my impression that the big search engines compete like strawberries and cream - they look different but end up on the same plate.
Regards,
David McCarthy
http://www.ayecasher.com
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|Would Stonewall jackson have won the battle of gettysburg
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|Jacqueline, great story on Powerset, thank you very much!
One thing confuses me, though. You are writing that “users submit their queries as questions that don't necessarily need to include keywords.” Then you describe Powerset’s solution as a product based on natural language search.
A natural language search is a search using regular spoken language. Using this type of search you can ask the database a question or you can type in a sentence that describes the information you are looking for. The database then uses a programmed logic to determine the keywords/exact definitions in the sentence by their position in the sentence.
It looks like Powerset’s engine still relies on keywords, although it processes them in a unique way.
A really ‘keyword-free solution’ does not rely on exact definitions at all.
For example, Brainware’s Globalbrain (recently found by Redmond magazine to be superior to Google and Microsoft desktop search offerings http://redmondmag.com/fe...e.asp?editorialsid=2468) differs from other search products on the market in that it does not make use of keyword search.
Globalbrain’s searches are based on a patented n-gram approach. While indexing the data in preparation for search, it breaks words and phrases into successive three-letter groups. It then breaks up the search term in the same manner, and performs comparisons of its three-letter groups to those in the index. Then Globalbrain rates the possible hits based on matches to those three-letter groups.
The capability provided by Brainware lets users search, not simply on key words, but on whole paragraphs and pages. Also, it is language-independent.
Here’s a case study showing Brainware in action:
Fulbright & Jaworski: Leading Law Firm Searches And Shares Knowledge Base Smarter, More Accurately
http://www.brainware.com/brain_case_lawfirm.php
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|Well it is certainly easier than searching Wikipedia...
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|Jaq - the idea (and implementation) has probably been around longer than you use computers...
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|I used that googlism link above and did a search for "George Bush" the result was well hilarious to say the least....here it is: http://www.googlism.com/...=George+Bush&type=1
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|Google's API has been able to do this for years, purely "for fun". A site "Googlism" uses Google API find the search phrase and print the sentences it appears in. If it only searched Wiki, of course it would come up with the same results as Powerset. See here: (search for "Chesapeake Bay") http://www.googlism.com/...esapeake+Bay&type=3
This Powerset feature is hardly novel. I find it unlikely it will threaten Google's grasp on internet search.
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