Comments on: Five Reasons I’m Not Going Gaga Over Powerset

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:41:41 +0000

@Mark - you're welcome to your opinion, but I found your rebuttal lacking anything of substance. Andy Beal's last blog post..Google Testing New iGoogle, No OpenSocial Support (Yet)

By: Mark Holton

Mark Holton — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:24:54 +0000

This article shows a lack of understanding of the subject matter.

“Isn’t Wikipedia made up of just 2.3 million pages, while Google’s index is likely 40+ billion?” Wikipedia’s content is significant because of it’s semantic value. Beyond what they have shown with Factz, Wikipedia holds the references to metadata — statements about web resources are linked to these references.

“Didn’t Google spend the last 10 years conditioning search engine users to use a handful of keywords–not natural language”. That has little to do with what semantic search is. Semantic has more to do with grepping the words in the page and interpreting that “Ajax” in this page relates to the web tech, not the dish soap. It’s transparent to the user, but the search results presented are more accurate based upon their meaning, not just the textual match.

Found this article to be far off on insightful content (like the other more recent article which these bullet points you present were copied and pasted).

Those who actually understand the technology, understand that what Powerset has done is unique, non-trivial, and has a great deal of use and potential.

Mark Holton’s last blog post..Microsoft buying Powerset?

By: SolarDave

SolarDave — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:46:22 +0000

With the MicroHoo stuff going on right now I think another search engine can come in right now – the door is open. But saddly I think PowerSet is not the one to make it happen. The timing is there, just not the search engine.

By: PS3

PS3 — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:40:41 +0000

The way teenagers are abusing the English language these days, it would be a better idea to develop an “text talk language” search Engine!

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:39:01 +0000

@Mark Johnson – thanks for your input. If you guys prove me wrong, feel free to come back and rub it in my face.

The best of luck!

By: Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:10:11 +0000

1) Ask was not processing every sentence from every document. The amount of processing power required for Powerset to analyze each sentence just wasn’t available back in the days when Ask first launched.
2) Powerset adds value across the query spectrum. For a topic keyword search like “henry viii”, we show Factz gathered about Henry VIII from across Wikipedia.
3) Wikipedia is very high value content and Powerset includes lots of tools for discovery and summarization. Note the features we have on our enhanced Wikipedia articles, like “Show Factz”
4) Powerset has built on the IP licensed from PARC and now has a healthy portfolio of our own IP
5) It’s not just about the query: it’s about features enabled by our understanding of the text.

The best way to experience Powerset is to try out the product yourself. Have fun and I look forward to your reaction.

-mark, powerset product manager

Mark Johnson’s last blog post..Powerset crosses the Uncanny Valley

By: Stuart Robinson

Stuart Robinson — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:02:37 +0000

Q: “What’s to stop Google or Microsoft from licensing the same technology?”

A: Powerset has an “exclusive license” to PARC’s NLP technology:

http://www.parc.com/about/pressroom/news/2007-02-09-powerset.html

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:28:21 +0000

Cant I create the same thing (probably better) in like 15 minutes using Google custom search, only searching Wikipedia? Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..SEO Analogies Help Us Understand

By: » Will Semantic Search Work For Local Search? Local Advertising Journal

» Will Semantic Search Work For Local Search? Local Advertising Journal — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:16:17 +0000

[...] Sterling of Screenwerk likes Powerset. Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim doesn’t. They both make good [...]

By: Geo

Geo — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:15:27 +0000

I can’t agree more than you Andy. Typing natural language queries is long and boring. Not only that – its COSTLY.

Yes, costly. As we know, humans are the lasiest beings on planet earth and our brain is also seeking the lasiest least energy consuming approach to a certain goal. And when the goal is finding information about something it’s not at all formulated like a sentence in the brain. It’s in the form of keywords that need be assembled into a meaningful sentence (that’s a costy process, look at children who are just learning to speak). So why bother with that and the longer writing, when you can just type in “Golden Bridge name” and get your result…

As I was looking at the presentation video this morning I started wondering – who is going to have time to go through all those nav menus and to click on all those nifty buttons when he can get the same with just typing it into Google…

By: Crenk » Blog Archive » Powerset Launches a Wikipedia Search Tool

Crenk » Blog Archive » Powerset Launches a Wikipedia Search Tool — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:28:29 +0000

[...] Lifehacker, Marketing Pilgrim, VentureBeat, Webware, Inquisitr and Techcrunch. May 12th, [...]

By: Kevin Bondelli

Kevin Bondelli — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:18:51 +0000

I spent about 30 minutes with Powerset last night and was not all that impressed. It seems to me to just be a fancy way to search Wikipedia and not much else. Kevin Bondelli's last blog post..Crystal Strait Pledges for Barack Obama