Powerset says it can deliver on a promise originally made by Ask Jeeves: namely, if you ask it a simple question, it will answer. This trick calls for software with the ability to understand the meaning of words, something even Google's engineers find challenging to create. With Powerset's technology in open beta, though, we can see for ourselves how well it works.
I first wrote about Powerset back in July 2007. I reported that Powerset got its natural language technology from a licensing deal with Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Powerset hired Google- and Yahoo-caliber engineers to work on the technology, and put it into private beta for many months before letting the whole world play with it.
Even now, Powerset's tool doesn't search the whole web; it's limited to Wikipedia. That might be an excellent move on the company's part. Wikipedia makes a good showcase. And Powerset may be pursuing a business model that is very different from Google's or Yahoo's. Rather than setting up a free-standing search engine that makes it money from advertisers, why not license the technology to sites that produce content? After all, if Powerset's technology can help Wikipedia users answer questions, think what it can do for university and business sites, which have information scattered far and wide, organized (or not) in many different ways.
The truth is, Powerset is also pursuing the free-standing search engine with advertising model. But if the technology works as advertised, there is no reason the company couldn't license it to others. Imagine being able to visit a government web site, type in a simple question, and get a simple answer! Perhaps if you type in “How do I buy a foreclosed home?” for example, you might get in reply something like this: “You can find a list of foreclosed homes in your area at this web site. You will need to put in your area code. Auctions are usually held once a month. You will need the following information to prequalify for the auction...”
Or...you could just put “foreclosed home auctions” into Google and find this web site near the top of the listings. Which approach makes more sense? That depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the question and the experience of the searcher. Even experienced searchers can become frustrated when trying to find really obscure, tricky, or specific information. How well does Powerset answer this need?
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