Microsoft buys “human” search engine Powerset
Microsoft has agreed to buy Silicon Valley semantic search engine Powerset, say reports. According to Venture Beat, the deal could happen as early as next month with a price tag in the $100 million range – more than double the estimated value of the company. The Powerset search engine first debuted in May. It strives to be different than say Google and Yahoo by giving you more meaningful and smarter search results than other search engines. Using simple phrases, short questions, and of course keywords, Powerset is supposed to understand what you are looking for and help you quickly find the information you need. We reviewed the beta version of the search engine in May and we were not impressed.
Ever since Microsoft’s failed bid for Yahoo, the company has been searching for another way to compete with Google. Powerset’s natural language or semantic based technology would seem to fit in with Microsoft’s current strategy as we reported last month. Natural language search is one of several new concepts for the next evolution of search engine technology. As we discussed in May, Powerset is designed to “understand what you are looking for and help you quickly find the information you need” using short phrases, questions and keywords instead of the traditional Google method that takes keywords and ranks Internet links based on a website’s popularity.
Source: PC World
Comments(41)
why weren’t you impressed with it?
and first
sounds nice to have a search engine that isn’t based on popularity and how much the sites are paying to be listed.
Good article, poorly posted. The ‘blogging’ standartds of rlflog have been quite high so far. So please, as in all blogs that quote from another article – give you’re own intro, quote , then CLEARLY STATE what your sources are.
Microsoft shares with Bill Gates…1989-2000..7000% increase
With Balmer 2001 till present…50% decrease
@ johnny knows his stocks…we all could have been rich if only we knew..
Is this their alternative to buying Yahoo??? Yahoo is far better and advanced than Powerset.
I wish Microsoft would buy me out!
This is wasted on Microsoft. Their search homepage is so messy and busy with annoying flashing ads and unidentifiable objects it’s an eyesore. That’s what drove people away in the first place. It would actually benefit us if it’s used on some clean search engine, like Google or AltaVista.
@#1> If you want to know who wasn’t impressed with it ask the dude who wrote it from PC World, not the guy that copied and pasted this article. LOL
Google rules. Simple as that. It’s quick and it’s efficient and it doesn’t have stupid adverts all over the place. I have it as my home page and I doubt I’ll ever change it.
microsoft are so pathetic.
please microsoft dont die on ME:(
what would i do without my beloved xbox
@9… google is the stupidest thing to have as your homepage haha. u always searching for stuff or something???
myspace is mine, or even an email would be a good homepage but google????
LOL My waster of space .com
lol @ 12 MATT…
um… myspace s*cks !@#$%^, y would u want THAT to be ur homepage over Google?
Y would u check ur email everytime u launch ur browser? Personally the only time I open my mail boxes is when I have mails in them, which I’d know cuz WebMail Notifier would tell me. Oh and PLEASE don’t tell me you’re using IE7!
no point in a google homepage, firefox has google’s or other searches “built in”, iGoogle perhaps ?
also, no one should be using IE anymore, firefox wins easily.
m$ fail again, anyone caring to bet on a page with more flash adds than your graphics card can handle ?
Why doesn’t MS just make their own search engine. I don’t get it. Spending money for something that can be made by them
“google is the stupidest thing to have as your homepage haha. u always searching for stuff or something???”
Uh… yes… ?
@12 you’re an idiot, first off google is much more then just a search engine (maps.google.com, docs.google.com, igoogle.com and the list goes on). and come on … my space? dumbass.
as for me i have multiple home pages, rlslog being one of them, when i load my broswer i load 8 tabs of sites i check regularly.
everyone please forgive MATT….. hes only 8 yrs old.
@18 (itzkid)
sorry dont want to sound too noob here but how do you set multiple home pages?
powerset is full of potential, it needs adjustments tough. The internet is still too adjusted to google’s way of searching which could rig some searches, this one on the other hand could be used to find what you really want, it has very difficult programing, the study of language has been given a lot of work and powerset looks like a nice break through. By the way, I’ve been an avid user of google and I don’t like microsoft (too money oriented, even for a mega company), but I always speak frankly about what I think it’s great.
@20
in firefox:
http://www.something.com | http://www.otherthing.com
you just have to use ‘|’
ooooook thank you very much freitax. hah learn something new everyday huh?
I have google as my homepage.. I had it for years, even when they weren’t even popular. I do sometimes search alot…..
why does this site always spam us with what Microsuck is doing..who really cares what they do? it’s enough that we have to suffer their stuffing their OS down our throats because they have the market share for most apps and games..but RLSlog is being run by neo-yuppies I think – due to the amt of spamming they do here..this site is really not as cool as they think they are..stay on subject please..is this site about the warez scene or Microsoft anyway?..every time they fart you tell us?
Its not so much the site but the technology that MS is looking for . All you people saying google is better have no idea what you are talking about . Eventually everything is going to go the semantic web way . Google is also spending a great deal of their R&D money on semantic web tech . Tech noobs piss me off . You think just because you can surf the web you are tech experts . Pfft …
@7
“Their search homepage is so messy and busy with annoying flashing ads and unidentifiable objects it’s an eyesore”
Really? Have you at least visited it? Ever?
http://www.live.com/
i guess alot of people here use macs or linux then…?
search engine looks promising, it will take time before its reached its potential though
lol @ 8
Obama love M$. When I raise capital gains taxes by 90%(you think the stock market is bad now! ROFL) and I cap the salaries of CEO’s but don’t say anything about movie stars, football players, etc. Oh and you can’t say my middle name Husayn pronounced like Saddam Hussein. And I don’t like gun clinger church folk. They don’t worship Allah. I got a good friend who tried to bomb the pentagon and was pardoned by Bill Clinton. I fired my preacher though because he was bad publicity.
Barack H Obama
-PS don’t vote for a guy with experience and a true hero
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951606847454685.html
I got a clean empty window since im constantly ctrl-c-n-v’ing or ctrl-t’ing… gotta have that clean addressbar to work my magic ^^
ctrl-t’ing NU Tab in firefox, thanks lol
LOL @ Wedge #22 – well said, I was going to say myself.
Also, why does no one know of live services like maps.live.com windowslivetranslator.com (translate.live.com), foldershare.live.com and so on and so forth
@12 – MATT
wow! who the hell has myspace as their homepage?
Funny how M$ keep humping on technical details while Google’s design and feel are in my opinion the most overclassing specifications on any other search engine.
Project fail… Computers can’t do semantics over a 6 year old…
I gave it a whirl. Not great, but a 100 million is not a huge amount of money. I typed the same questions into google and i got better answers.
“but a 100 million is not a huge amount of money.” That’s more money than you or I will probably make in a lifetime put together dude. I’d say that’s a lot of money.
more at http://www.colectioneaza.com/cyborg_bv.html
typical MS\
They cannot create on their own so:
A: Steal it
B: Finagle it
C: Purchase it
What has microsoft ever ‘created’.. you would be surprised at how short that list actually is..
ChaCha is the only “true” human search engine there is. I use it everyday almost. Text ChaCha at 242-242 or Call 1-800-2CHACHA with your question (yes it’s free). You can find more info at chacha.com.