Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science of studying them is linguistics. A common progression for natural languages is that they are first spoken, then written, and then an understanding and explanation of their grammar (according to speech) is attempted.”(Wikipedia)
Last week, I went over to Powerset’s offices in San Francisco to interview Lorenzo Thione about Powerset. Powerset is a search engine that analyzes search queries and retrieve results based on natural language algorithms (and not only keywords). The search engine is still in private beta, and is expected to open to the public this year.
The buzz says that Powerset is seriously challenging Google’s search technology. For now, the private beta happens on Powerlabs,where a community of users participate to the foundation of what could become the next consumer search engine leader.
Powerset will release the Wikipedia search tool in the next few weeks. Lorenzo explains that Wikipedia is a great environment for Powerset to fine-tune their technology on one of the Web’s most exhaustive and diversified source of information. Expect a lot of press coverage on Wikipedia search.