Next-generation search engine tech aims to understand natural written language
Posted 02.22.2008 at 12:04 pm
4 Comments
Powerset Semantic Search:
The companies—Powerset, Hakia, Cognition Search, Lexxe—are trying to develop a search technology that would allow you to look for material on the Web while writing like a normal, educated human, instead of just entering keywords, and dropping all the in-between stuff that gives us those wonderful things called sentences.
It’s a bold aim. For example, Powerset’s stated goal is to build “a natural language search engine that reads and understands every sentence on the Web.” Forbes has an interesting analysis of the field, and points out one key competitive flaw: At this point, these companies don’t actually offer an advantage over Google. One analyst says they might be able to develop one, but doesn’t expect it anytime soon. And Google? Well, as you might have guessed, the Web giant, surely well on its way to develop semantic technologies of its own, isn’t too worried.
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
4 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Download Our iPhone App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Become a Fan On Facebook
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
November 2009: Astronaut 3.0
Inside NASA's astronaut bootcamp and the grueling new training regimen for deep space. Plus, ten young geniuses shaking up science today, one writer's quest to analyze every man-made chemical in her body and more.
Check out the issue's full contents online here
Popular Science Photo Pool
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Science
- Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
- Hideous Rodent May Provide Cure For Cancer
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- So Just How Tiny Is a Virus?
- Gallery: Where Toxins Come From
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- A Material Based on Sharkskin Stops Bacterial Breakouts
- Silk-Silicon Implantable Electronics Conform to Tissues, Then Melt Away
- Gray Matter: The Hidden Uses of Everyday Explosives
Most Commented
Science
- Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
- This Week in the Future, October 26-30, 2009
- Hideous Rodent May Provide Cure For Cancer
- This Week in the Future, October 30- November 6, 2009
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- Mutant Bacteria Are Likely to Threaten Future Space Travelers
- A Material Based on Sharkskin Stops Bacterial Breakouts
- Lawsuit Banning Human Gene Patents Continues, Court Rules
Most Emailed
Science
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- A Software-Powered Cell Phone Microscope That Doesn't Need Special Lenses
- New Breed of Mice Retains Great Hearing (and Sex Lives) in Old Age
- Synthetic Molecules Trick Body Into Improved Immune Response to HIV, Cancer
- Will Drilling Into a Volcano Trigger an Eruption That Destroys Naples?
- Anti-Paralysis Shot Improves Spinal Recovery Three Times As Fast
- This Week in the Future, October 30- November 6, 2009
- Nanoparticles Can Damage DNA Without Crossing Cellular Barrier
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Its quicker just to write in keywords anyway, I'm not seeing any point other then happy english teachers.
"subscriber," I imagine you mean "other than." No offense intended; simply illustrating my point. Read on.
I like a unified form of language because it allows us to understand each other. Your confusion of homophones isn't a total stumbling block for me, but it might prove difficult for a non-native speaker, given the fact that the two words in questions have totally unrelated meanings. I've also run into spelling and grammar errors so terrible that I literally couldn't decipher a meaning.
I'm also pretty sure that what's at stake here isn't just time and effort, but intuitiveness and viability. For example, my wife can never find what she's looking for because she's not familiar with exclusive boolean terms like "-" "not" "+" and quotes. The way you enter a search string can drastically change your results, especially with all the embedded keyword garbage that fills those sites nobody actually wants to see, but somehow everyone always ends up at.
I assume language == English and that “a natural language search engine that reads and understands every sentence on the Web.” really means "a natural language search engine that reads and understands every English sentence on the Web.”.
very nice blogs.
thanks.
Kaza dün gece yarısı evden eve nakliyat Osmancık İlçesi D-100 karayolunda evden eve nakliyat meydana geldi. 28 yaşındaki Halil İbrahim Gezer evden eve yönetimindeki 34 JMK 02 evden eve plakalı yolcu
otobüsü, Şenyurt Mahallesi'ndeki nakliyat Karayolları 71'inci Şube
Müdürlüğü önünde Emrah Çevik'in kullandığı nakliyat 19 EE 375 plakalı motosiklete arkadan çarptı.
İddiaya göre arka lambaları evden eve nakliyatyanmadığı için farkedemediği motositlete çarpmasıyla Çevik olay yerinde hayatını kaybetti. Kazada otobüsteki yolculardan ön kısımda oturan Silver Dumancı (19) ve
Özcan Görmez (12) hafif şekilde yaralandı. Osmancık Devlet