After reading that Microsoft wanted to buy Powerset for $100m I decided to have a go on the now legendary new search engine. I wasn’t amazingly, amazingly amazed with the outcome. Google and Powerset came up with broadly the same answers and in one case Google had on its first page what I had in mind when I typed the query. In both cases the search string was identical and parsed in the natural language in which Powerset supposedly has the advantage.
I don’t think it is a bad buy by Microsoft, if nothing else it may help persuade Silicon Valley types that MS is a cool place to work. This is so long as MS doesn’t suffocate Powerset under its bureaucracy after the purchase goes through. This is what Yahoo did to delicious, and it is painful to see such a good idea still sitting on the launch pad. I’ve said many times before delicious is the best bet for anyone to come up with a better text search engine than Google. It has the potential for personalised search in a way Google never will but only Digg seems to do anything about it. Maybe PARC will come along and rescue delicious but since they have no record of acquisitions and came up with Powerset in the first place then I doubt it.
Voice, not text
I think natural language search does have a bright future but not as a text search engine. I was watching one of Bill Gates’ many valedictory interviews and one thing he said that caught my attention is that MS hasn’t yet given up on voice interaction with computer. This brings to mind the scene in Star Trek IV when Scottie says ‘hello computer’ into the mouse but it is intriguing. Text search engines are actually better without natural language search as it is less arduous to type in keywords. However natural language search comes into its own with voice. At the moment Powerset requires you to type the query in but it seems to me that this is not what MS has in mind for it.
I think that MS is looking beyond text search altogether. Gates has already posited his view of the future in which people interact with computers in new ways. Now I know he has left MS full time, but he’s still spending one day per week there. It wouldn’t surprise me if linking Powerset to the voice technology he is excited about is what BillG is spending his 20% time on. If he is then watch out Google.
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On Joshua Schachter
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On Bill Gates
