Forget Jeeves, ask Powerset
Remember Ask Jeeves? The search engine branded itself as the web鈥檚 trusty ma卯tre d'. Type in your query 鈥� feel free to phrase it as a question 鈥� and Jeeves suggested where you could find an answer. But Jeeves turned off many users by directing them toward rather irrelevant websites. Since then, most search engines 鈥� including the Jeeves' replacement, Ask.com 鈥� ignore all of those who, what, when, where, and whys. They just pluck out keywords.
Along comes . This startup website actually reads what you wrote. The search engine encourages you to write the way you speak, and then uses your phrasing to search entries in Wikipedia.
Type in 鈥溾�� and Powerset鈥檚 first response is portraits of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google鈥檚 co-founders. The labeled pictures link to their Wikipedia entries. If that wasn鈥檛 quite what you wanted, Powerset offers other links, just like any other search engine.
Try 鈥溾�� and the search engine highlights 鈥淛une 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia.鈥� A search for the comes up with several sites that have the correct answer, but you need to click through to find it.
Google has incorporated a few instant replies 鈥� answers that don鈥檛 require you to link to another page. The search engine field can convert measurements, calculate exchange rates, and answer 鈥溾��
But if you rephrase the question and ask Google 鈥溾�� the search engine doesn鈥檛 answer 鈥�16,284,741,鈥� as it did before. Powerset, on the other hand, answers with the correct number.
The site is not perfect. For one, it only searches entries, so its pool of knowledge is incomplete and possibly inaccurate. The startup hopes to refine the algorithm and expand its sources, maybe one day allowing Powerset to search the entire web.
For now, though, Powerset is an early player in what鈥檚 called 鈥渟emantic search鈥� 鈥� that鈥檚 an ugly, technical term for teaching computers to understand natural language. Many futurists think that the 鈥溾�� will be the next wave in Internet sites 鈥� a so-called Web 3.0. Expect a lot more of these natural-language options to come.