Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Have you ever been frustrated by a Google search?

It's the occasion that you need to find out a vital point and you do what everyone does these days, and Google it........ and back some 15,000,450 answers which work on a percentage basis on the words you have used in your search!!! what we need is a natural search engine which looks at the way language is used in a question, and more over actually seems to understand the question...
Could the answer be at hand.... well perhaps according to Mike Butcher (12th May)over at TechCrunch with his article from 13th May where he discusses the merits of PowersetSee this Vimeo video of Powerset in action "Powerset’s first product is a search and discovery experience for Wikipedia, launched in May 2008. Powerset’s technology improves the entire search process. In the search box, you can express yourself in keywords, phrases, or simple questions. On the search results page, Powerset gives more accurate results, often answering questions directly, and aggregates information from across multiple articles. Finally, Powerset’s technology follows you into enhanced Wikipedia articles, giving you a better way to quickly digest and navigate content."
In the TechCrunch article Mike goes on to talk about a British company also in the field True Knowledge based in Cambridge, I must admit if their product, currently in Beta testing ( apply by email to TrueKnowledge from the website) if it lives up to their video it will outshine Powerset
- I tried some of the search questions from TrueKnowledge out on Powerset and it wasn't terribly impressive or intuitive... as it is at present using the wikepedia database does not seem to allow it to be as intuitive as it needs to be.
I am sure that as this semantic web development gathers pace more of these application will appear, and I am sure that the big guns - Google and Yahoo are looking at which they need to be considering for their own future ...... they may be Googled themselves..... perhaps in the long term - The king is dead, long live The King!

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A dear friend

It seems very apt to be writing this blog post in tribute to a dear, dear friend. The world has lost a true global educational  IT innovator...