What is Digg?47 Comments
- Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Hook in some voice recognition and you can be all sci fi
"Computer, Find me the rainfall average for Gladstone for the dates between the 19th of june 1762 and the 23rd september 1843"
"Is that Gladstone in Queensland or Tasmania?"
...
and then after work
"Computer, find me some high quality lesbian porn, something involving maids, then remove all history records relating to this query" - UrlorJkron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Without actually having any search on their site they are going to have a difficult time dethroning google.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Sound like some good ideas, but as for searching, I still find everything I need to fine with google. If it's not broke...
- taizoshiozaki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Hell, this entire "closed beta plug" is working against the Powerset guys. Who manages their PR ?
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6they know they aren't a Google killer.. but they also know claiming they are will get a lot of digg users to check them out
free publicity!
*cough*spam*cough* - eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5their logo is "fu" in japanese upside down and backwards inside a Q. weird.
- netdroid9, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Google's got a huge search engine. Sure, they're technically an advertising company, but pretty much everyone things Search Engine when you say Google. At least, everyone I know.
- Dested, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Well you can type baseball and search through 3 websites for scores of the Yankee game, or you can type "What is the current Yankee record" and have a table of information. You choose.
- cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Natural language searching is certainly a good idea... but the problem is that it's not exactly new or revolutionary. There are a LOT of companies out there (I'm sure Google is among them) that have been trying to do this... the only problem is that it's a heck of a lot easier said than done!
Tack onto that a) Google's marketing muscle b) Google's brand recognition c) Google's enormous freakin' userbase and then there's also d) with all of their resources, I wouldn't be surprised to see Google implement a natural language processing search engine before anyone else...
I'm not trying to put down powerset, but I think it's pretty naive to call ANYONE a Google killer at this point in time. - PabloIV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The team seems rather impressive and they DO appear to have good intentions. Still, it's evidently in the VERY early stges of starting-up, making it WAAAAYYY too early to call them a mosquito killer much less a Google killer. The idea sounds great but I'm sure Google's been on it for a while now and will have it at least in Beta before these guys move to San Francisco.
- nicroma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3With no web search function it is hard to believe.
- afrazkhan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2
Gah, natural language processing (NLP) has been around for a _long_ time, and it still hasn't gotten anywhere useful, at least not with search engines (where I believe a lot of the work is being done).
The problem isn't that human language is complicated, (though it certainly is, and that causes headaches for NLP researchers), it's that it's ambigious. When another _human_ can't tell the difference betweek two meanings of one phrase, it is naive to think that a program which humans wrote can. - abrinck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is no search engine in Powerset's website. The whole article is a plug.
As one of the early comments said. Anyone can say - I will be the next IBM, Microsoft, Virgin-
Empty Air, I say: BURY! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I don't think so, Google has become the Microsoft of the internet... its going to take decades to de-throne them, if ever...
- danhugo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Natural language queries might be useful I guess. What I'd like to see is something more [much more] than keyword matches in the search results. If content can be parsed MUCH more effectively than it is today so that the result set really matches the intent of the query rather than just the keywords in it, we'll be getting somewhere.
The "books by children" example in the valleywag article illustrates what is lacking in the Google result set as well as just about any other query]; obviously, we would need to see the Powerset results compared, and that doesn't seem to be a possibility. I have to say, though, that the ranking of Google results seems to have improved (and will no doubt continue to) so that a basic un-unquoted query often puts a lot of relevant results on page 1. "Often" is not "always" though. - sasane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2that is not the Japanese character "fu". The balance is way off for that too be possible. As I see it, the logo is three things. 1. A question mark 2. A big "Q" for "question" 3. A surprised (questioning?) face
All three points are on theme for a search engine, whereas "fu" is not. - strebormj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The search function is also in stealth mode. However, after reading the article, I do believe that they were able to guess what I wanted to search for and do the search for me without making me waste time typing. Unfortunately, my search came back with no results.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is there an actual running demo of this search engine, or is this all just hype they're generating to get Google to buy them out before they even released anything?
- Aquilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Google already uses NLP!
They are a search company, they have an enormous amount of research going on in this area. And they employ the brightest minds to take on the challenge.
They do PPC as well, as do most search engines. It doesn't make them an advertising company.
It's a search engine! - NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What the? Sorry, I have nothing to say. I didn't see a captcha so I didn't think it would submit. Oh dear. Where is the captcha?
- fletchowns, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4netdroid9, they built the search engine FOR the advertising portion of their business. Why create gmail or google calendar? Another place to put ads. Why have free wifi all over Mountain View? Ads ads and more ads.
- Phegan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The internet has hit a critial mass, it has become a pop culture medium over the last 5 years, more so than ever. Google has solidified itself in the minds of those who jump on the pop culture bandwagon(Good for Google). Those people's mind aren't easy to change, mainly because they think as a collective, not as a person. Even if something is better than google, if the culture isn't going to embrace it, it isn't going to go anywhere. If any company was smart they would run TV commercials with today's hottest rapper for thier new search engine and they will be able to sway people. Google isn't just a search engine, it is a verb...I am going to 'Google' that. I have even heard it used on The Flavor of Love. Google is here to stay for a long time, until they start allowing thier product to falter, or buy into your generic spam internet advertising(Myspace is becoming this) Once Google allows themself to fall off from thier current buisness practices maybe they might fall, but they are the first site to be a major pop culture site not to integrate ***** spamming and not so secure advertising, as long as they keep this up, they will not only keep the tech elite, but the pop culture world.
Long story short..nothing will beat google for a long time coming, or until they ***** things up. - SulFuRus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1First comment and you get the point.
exactly.
This smells to a lame self-promoting. - jasonliebe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is a classic let's-argue post :-)
1) Obviously too soon to tell if PowerSet will matter
2) If PowerSet is something special Google will probably buy them
Looks like smart folks involved, so curious to see what they've come up with and what their competitive advantage is.
Btw, that snap.com looks/works kind of cool ... - jackdaniels06, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2All these guys think the same way about Google whether it be start ups or Yahoo or MS. Google is miles ahead in the race and these other companies think Google is just standing still sitting on their laurels. Yes you have companies like YouTube and MySpace who have sprinted ahead in their area (video and social interaction ) BUT we are talking Google's bread and butter, steak and potatoes, SEARCH where they are constantly tweaking algorithms, R&D, and putting the smartest people on the planet on search more than ever before!
- CharlesV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Honestly, any company that thinks they're going to succeed, but can't be arsed to make their menu buttons not look like crap doesn't have my vote of confidence. Use photoshop, not mspaint, you've supposedly got the VC for it.
- Bit0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did anyone read the comments on the bottom of the page?
One guy points to google white papers that he claims addresses a few of the issues brought up: http://labs.google.com/papers.html
Another guy claiming to be the former director of Engineering at AltaVista points to a blog he wrote on the subject: http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/10/powerset_natura.html - chriscromp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah right. A search for "What is the current Yankee record" will really return a table of stats. Yes, this works in theory, and for the "sample" searches. But when real users start asking real questions I don't believe they'll be able to provide a table of "the answer."
People don't ask unambiguous semantically logical questions. Saying a search engine will be able to reliably understand questions is like saying an untrained person can write a computer program just by "describing what they want the program to do in natural language."
One day, but I don't think that day is soon. - mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2why would i want to type more than i have to?
- subrobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1One great competitive advantage of Google, the Google File System
http://blog.topix.net/archives/000016.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_File_System - 16777216, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Say it with me now fu - q
- coolcrowe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Google is so successful because it's simple, straightforward... and the company actually cares about its customers. Gmail is amazing. And "books by children" does not turn out sketchy results on google, unless you call www.booksbychildren.com sketchy results.
- jkr06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not worth discussion right now .. Until we are able to see the results and compare !
- jslee0, on 05/05/2008, -0/+0Googe replaced yahoo a few years ago. Who knows someone else will do that to Google?
- idlethink, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1digged! if only for the coining of the term "Search Grunt", which is awesome. boo to boolean!
- wspence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I actually like snap. But like its been said, get off the ground before you try to become a giant killer
- FaNtAsMa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Google is pretty much synonomous with search right now. Unless they suddenly collapse, nothing is going to replace it.
- aspirinetu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1how can a finnish electronics store with a crappy site beat google?
http://www.powerset.fi/ - Aquilla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Ask here aspirinetu:
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/ - captnkurt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1-"their logo is "fu" in japanese upside down and backwards inside a Q. weird."-
Do you mean "fu" as in "kung-fu" or "fu" as in "Hey, buddy, eff you!" - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+8Anyone who buries fletchowns is just plain ignorant. The founder of McDonald's said he wasn't in the Hamburger business, he was in the real estate business. Same goes for Google. Your business is defined by your revenue stream.
Unfortunately for Mr Kroc, he didn't know he was into the makenkidsfat business. - makingme, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Google is not going anywhere for a very very long time. They've paid their dues and have their market share and is planning on keeping that market share. Good luck to powerset I guess.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Actually, it appear that it will take exactly only one decade to dethrone them, so I wouldn't worry.
- SuperMank, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1It's actually a question mark with single quotes around it?
Designed to trip up Wapanese all over the web, or just coincidence? You decide. - subrobot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0http://blog.topix.net/archives/000016.html
- fletchowns, on 10/12/2007, -20/+16Last time I checked Google wasn't a search engine company, they are an advertising company.
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