Powerset Launches as Wikipedia Tool - How it Works
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Powerset is actually hosting a copy of Wikipedia's 2.5 million English language entries on its own computers. It also searches Freebase, a database created by MetaWeb. Michael Arrington, who tested Powerset for several weeks before the open beta, noted that it is an effective way to gather information quickly. “For someone doing research, Powerset effectively removes a number of steps towards getting to the final information. It is particularly effective when the information needed is on many different web pages.”
For example, what happens if you ask Powerset when hurricanes have hit New York City?
I know that doesn't look terribly impressive, but the eighth entry, which didn't make it into this screen shot, was for an actual list of New York hurricanes. I tried the search on Google – specifically in the question format – and the search engine didn't do nearly as well. Anyway, when I clicked through to the link I mentioned, Powerset included a helpful outline of the article on the right:
The article itself looked as if came straight from Wikipedia (no surprise there). The clickable outline shown above took me to specific sections. It also followed me as I scrolled up and down the page, but the button on the far right at the top lets the user “pin” the outline in place so it doesn't engage in that behavior (very useful if you find that sort of thing annoying).
If this outline doesn't give you enough detail to click to the points in the article you want to see, you can always go to the Factz view. That view seems to highlight the parts that Powerset's technology thinks you might want to jump to for more detail. Here is the Factz view of the outline for the same article:
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