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Credibility and Powerset.

When Google was starting out they didn't constant issue press releases about how much better they were than AltaVista. They just put themselves out there and people realized they were better. The rest is history.

Not so with Powerset, a natural language search engine. Given the fact that you can't even try their product yet, they seem to be in a state of perpetual hype, including their appearance today at the TechCrunch40. If you're seriously better guys, then stop telling me you are and show me.

Natural language searching sounds like a great idea, but the truth is that over half of searchers use one- or two-word queries, hardly the stuff of natural language. And Google does an admirable job when you type in a natural language query already.

Wanna be a Google-killer? Show me what you've got.

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Posted by larry at September 17, 2007 08:18 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Sign up for the demo and try Powerlabs, if you're curious. You may not get in immediately, but you will get in.

I think people misunderstand Powerset's age. It's not like a radically different and more expensive search technology can spring up overnight. It's taken awhile (and will take a bit more time still) to get the Powerset engine to the point where it is ready for general use. Powerset, like many startups with emerging technology, faces the tricky problem of trying to balance its press with reality. It has to have enough hype to get the funding necessary for such a huge undertaking while at the same time not making unsupportable or premature claims (these tend to snap back in people's faces come launch time).


Posted by: Dave on September 18, 2007 01:34 PM
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