Yegor's Profile

Member since May 13, 2008

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    Yegor Kuznetsov,

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  1. Comment - Powerset previews search engine seen as threat to Google, Yahoo

    (May 13, 2008 - 10:38 AM)

    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