Semantic search has been “the next big thing in search” for ages, but hasn’t really got any closer to reality. Google hasn’t launched anything significant in this arena, which is unusual given all the PhDs it employs. So for Microsoft to spend $100million on a company developing this technology is a significant move.
For a description of semantic search, have a look at Joe’s blog from October, and to get an idea of how long it has been discussed, here’s another written by our Australian office in March 2007.
Results from the company that Microsoft appears to be purchasing, Powerset, are mixed, with varying levels of accuracy and query detection. At the moment, its main source of data is Wikipedia, but given that Microsoft owns some significant information sources (Expedia anyone?), this could well change. It also remains to be seen what they are going to do with it, but the natural assumption is that it will feed into Live Search, to try an improve the results there.
Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land considers this a speculative buy “$100 million is dirt cheap for technology that supposedly is going to propel search into the next level. Which, of course, means it was overhyped to begin with — so Microsoft is getting a bargain”, he comments on VentureBeat.
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