Comments on: Powerset Is Live

By: PeoplePad Keeping Mum on Semantic Plans - GigaOM

PeoplePad Keeping Mum on Semantic Plans - GigaOM — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:17:16 +0000

[...] up. I had to push to get Williams to talk to me. After a big launch for Questia and watching other complicated technology companies receive media hype they couldn’t live up to, WIlliams says he’s not letting PeoplePad [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:11:26 +0000

You don’t need to index the entire web to have viable search business; a little mobile search company called caboodle networks just indexed mobile content and got an M&A exit. Powerset only needs to index a subset that matters to more and more people, and they can become viable.

By: Powerset semantic search engine launches Wikipedia-based demo - ZePy

Powerset semantic search engine launches Wikipedia-based demo - ZePy — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:33:32 +0000

[...] article. It works quite well as an advanced search tool for a single site like Wikipedia. [via GigaOm] Bookmark this Post Now! [?] Do you want to get daily computer tips and web 2.0 info? [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:25:20 +0000

Random searches indicate that it should be dead in a few months. Try, for instance, "American civil war death toll" with Powerset, then with Google.

And I'm no SEO master, but every other search engine seems to find Daily Paws just fine. Powerset.... not so much.

By: Simon Brocklehurst

Simon Brocklehurst — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:31:52 +0000

From a quick look at Powerset today, I think it has two problems: firstly, the kind of approach Powerset appears to be taking performs worse than keyword search; and secondly, Google is, in a low-key way, already implementing a “natural language” approach to search that works better than keyword search.

For anyone interested, I’ve put some more details on my blog @

http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2008/05/12/the-two-big-problems-for-powerset/

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:15:14 +0000

@ Kumar,

I agree with you. I have been doing some random searches this morning and well, things have not been coming back as I expected. I think this needs a couple of days of rapid testing before making a final judgement call.

By: ronald

ronald — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:09:40 +0000

First of, I have to agree Google is an ROI problem. But can someone be better it by providing a better search by Investing in search. I doubt it. But maybe they don’t want to do that. In any way it seems to try to be a better recognizing system, no understanding. No idea what information is and how it is processed in the brain to form understanding, same goes for Google.

For someone interested in the topic try: http://psych.colorado.edu/~oreilly/

While we have some disagreements it’s a good start to see where we stand today.

But maybe it I need to relax, found some mistakes in the underlying articles, and have more coffee.

By: Kumar

Kumar — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:51:27 +0000

I tried: What is the longest lake in the world? If powerset understands semantics, why does it return so many unrelated results?

By: Text Technologies » Blog Archive » Powersoft is mildly interesting

Text Technologies » Blog Archive » Powersoft is mildly interesting — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:17:43 +0000

[...] So is Om Malik, who notes that Powerset performance is a bear [...]

By: John Elar

John Elar — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:57:24 +0000

Pwb you are right. many people submit thei websites into old search engines in the market. this is ok but they can try submitting in the new ones too.

By: pwb

pwb — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:53:52 +0000

A lot of people seem to mistake that new search companies need to index the entire web in order to have a viable business. This is obviously incorrect.

By: Powerset is cool, but will mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa use it?

Powerset is cool, but will mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa use it? — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:38:23 +0000

[...] do more topic-based searches and get a holistic view of the information you’re looking for.–Powerset Is Live – GigaOM There is no way to look at Powerset today and determine if it can be as disruptive to search as [...]