Powerset.com - The Semantic Search Engine Acquired by Microsoft
Powerset is a semantic search engine that hopes to solve the issue of teaching computers to learn or language.
In it’s current format, Powerset currently only indexes Wikipedia and Freebase for it’s data, but they hope to expand that search to additional sites in the future.
The Data
As I mentioned above, Powerset currently only indexes two data sources; Wikipedia and Freebase.
Most people have heard of Wikipedia in one form or another. As a matter of fact, most search queries on major databases include at least one Wikipedia entry within the first few pages.
It’s this reason Powerset decided to launch their initial offering with just Wikipedia entries.
The other source that Wikipedia will pull data from is a free online database called FreeBase. To be honest, prior to writing this blog post, I had never heard of FreeBase.com. Freebase is a similar to Wikipedia, except that the data is free for anyone to query without having to worry about licensing rights.
Search Results and Interface
Despite the advanced technology behind the search queries, the interface itself is nothing breakthrough… but it’s good.
Once you type in your search query, you’re presented with a page broken down into multiple parts; Freebase, Factz, and Wikipedia Articles.
Freebase is the first section of the page (if available) and will provide you with a summary of your term. For example, if you do a search for “Golden Gate Bridge”, you’re presented with a short paragraph or overview of the bridge.
The Second part is something Powerset calls Factz. Factz is an interesting section and really shows the power of the search engine. Powerset will pull out information it believes are facts about the search query at hand. for example, using the same “Golden Gate Bridge” query above, Powerset shows who it’s owned by, the areas it connects and who it is maintained by.
Finally, you have a straight up search results of Wikipedia articles pertaining to the search query.
A New Owner, a New Beginning(?)
Powerset has had a lot of publicity both leading up to and after their launch to the public. Shortly after their launch in May of 2008, the site was acquired by Microsoft.
Now, regardless of your feelings of Microsoft, the fact that they acquired Powerset so early on, tells you a lot about the technology behind the search. Microsoft has needed some type of an edge in it’s lagging search and web presence, so anything they can do to improve their standings would be an improvement.
Conclusion
Even though powerset is just a search engine for Wikipedia at this point, I’m excited about what it will bring to the table. Hopefully with the resources Microsoft can put behind Powerset, the search will be able to live up to the hype.
