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"Understanding" Search Engine Enters Public Beta

Posted by kdawson on from the do-what-i-mean dept.

religious freak sends word of the public beta of Powerset, a closely watched San Francisco startup that promises an "understanding engine" to revolutionize Web search. An article in SearchEngineLand points out that Powerset is reaching higher than for mere "natural language." Techcrunch has more details and analysis. For the beta, Powerset makes available all of Wikipedia to search — not all the Web. It's said that their understanding engine required a month to grok Wikipedia's 2.5M articles. The Web is currently at least 8,000 times as large.

14 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. My first search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "No results found for naked pictures of Natalie Portman. How does that make you feel?"

    1. Re:My first search by i_liek_turtles · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know, but I did pull up a Southern cooking website!

  2. Next step.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since Powerset can only search Wikipedia, the logical next step is to put the entire web on Wikipedia. Who's up for the job?

    1. Re:Next step.... by maglor_83 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think we need to split it up by domain name. I'll start with wikipedia.org

  3. The Web is currently at least 8,000 times as large by nog_lorp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any day now, Wikipedia will surpass The Web's growth rate, and set a course for the day when Wikipedia will be BIGGER THAN THE WEB.

  4. Jargon pisses me off... by KGIII · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I hear the word "grok" one more time I'm gonna have to kill someone...

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    1. Re:Jargon pisses me off... by Molochi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Grok.

      Grokgrokgrok.

      Pics or it didn't happen.

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
  5. Re:I'm Unimpressed by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I asked it "who won the election in 2004?" and it understood the question, in a way:

    The current mayor is Jardir Silva Vidal who won the election in 2004 against Reino Martins de Oliveira

  6. Obviously still buggy. by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your tests are interesting, but you're not really parsing the responses in the right context. They're problematic. Keep in mind this understanding engine understands the world in a way that was hatched out in San Fransisco.

    Who is David Bowie? I trust that it came back with, "aka Ziggy Stardust, normal family guy"

    Who played the villain in the first Die Hard? Well, obviously, the villain is "capitalism."

    Billie Jean King and Madonna ... like I said, it's San Fransisco

    Who was the organist for The Beatles on Abbey Road?

    You had it at "organ," and it got distracted. What they need is some dev guys from Toledo to collaborate, and provide a little cognitive counterweight to the understanding engine. OK, maybe not Toledo. Maybe Atlanta.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. Re:But it doesn't give results any differently by mrbluze · · Score: 4, Funny

    I asked 'Where do babies come from' and it just gave me back a bunch of articles with that string somewhere in their text.

    Funny, when I was a boy I asked my father the same thing and he gave me a few articles with pictures of women wearing string. My conclusion: It's amazing what can be done with just a few bits of string.

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  8. Re:But it doesn't give results any differently by The+Great+Pretender · · Score: 4, Funny

    I tried "What are anal warts". Google gave me a response faster than I could start and stop my timer, with the second answer being Wikipedia. Powerset is still, hold on..., yep still hung up on the question.

    --
    A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
  9. Oh man. it's down. by redtuxrising · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anybody got Google cache for this new search engine?

  10. Re:But it doesn't give results any differently by glittalogik · · Score: 5, Funny

    I asked it a question I got in a trivia contest - what countries have four-letter names? (There are 10, and google's first link is to a list of 'em)

    Powerset's first response? "Fuck."

    Funny, that was my response too, but at least I got 5 or 6 of them first...

  11. Impressive by mrrudge · · Score: 4, Funny

    Q: What the hell is a 'factz'
    A: Did you mean 'What the hell is a fact?'

    Quite