Microsoft buys semantic search engine for $ 100 million

One of the most promising developers of semantic (semantic) search technology, Powerset , becomes the property of Microsoft. According to unofficial information , the amount of the transaction can be about $ 100 million. This is a normal price for a startup, which was called a potential competitor to Google .

Semantic search technologies imply that the search engine is trying to analyze the true meaning of each search query, which increases the quality of the output by an order of magnitude. As seen in the screenshot (this is the Powerset version for iPhone), the technology is able to find synonyms of phrases (“pat's rocket” = “Roast Beef”) and take them into account when searching.

However, many experts dispute the reality of implementing semantic search theory, and even Google finds this technology only partially interesting. Having hired several semantic search specialists to the staff, she still does not apply it fully. In fact, semantic search looks revolutionary only in theory, but in practice no one has yet been able to implement it properly.

Nevertheless, Microsoft believes that the purchase of the Powerset should help in the competition in the search market, where it still loses to Google. Not so long ago, Steve Ballmer publicly stated that improving the quality of search is the most important task that Microsoft faces today.
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See also:
Semantic search: myths and reality