DISQUS

Otilia Otlacan · 1 year ago

I really doubt this will change in any way the search landscape, assuming the deal is happening. $100 million is quite nothing for Microsoft so it's probably just a portfolio acquisition and nothing more, on the principle "I got no clue what to do with this, but it'll better sit in my lap than running free for anyone to grab."

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Web Marketing Man · 1 year ago

The long tail of search is becoming more and more fashionable, so the natural language option is becoming more and more viable. The application and execution remains to be seen and evaluated, but there is definite merit here. Whether Microsoft will be able to capitalise on this technology is the question.

MB Web Design · 1 year ago

I really can't see this working in light of point #2 - google has conditioned the majority of us to use keyword1 + keyword2 searches rather than natural language, which in my experience is only the domain of the newbie Internet user.

nemo · 1 year ago

I really dont see this working...

Brian · 1 year ago

What a waste of $

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RIchard Srery · 1 year ago

Of course Google is doing its best to down play this move by MS, yet at the same time Google has already hired many from the company in order to develop thier own similar capabilities. Innovation redefied once again.

Richard P. Srery
Operations, Logistics & Engagement Management

Mark Holton · 1 year ago

The only way they can attempt to tackle any of Google's market share is to go 'semantic', and this is one of the bright companies engaged in semantic search.

"Microsoft doesn’t lack in the technology department, it lacks in the branding and execution department"

That's completely off. You think Powerset will help their *brand*?? Nobody outside of those into tech even knows what Powerset even is. ...MSFT is far far behind in the technology department, and they are looking to catch up (hence this action, and the action to buy Yahoo!)

Your article is technically off as well. You say "Didn’t Google spend the last 10 years conditioning search engine users to use a handful of keywords–not natural language". That has little to do with what semantic search is. Semantic is grepping the words in the page and interpreting that "Ajax" in this page relates to the web tech, not the dish soap. It's transparent to the user, but the search results presented are more accurate.

Found this article to be far off on insightful content. Sorry.

Mark Holton's last blog post..Microsoft buying Powerset?

Jaan Kanellis · 1 year ago

Holy crap no way PS gets bought for 100 mil. Please tell me it is not true.

What is MS really paying for here? Cant I create the same thing in Google Custom search?

Jeeeez.

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SeoPositive · 1 year ago

Thats alot of $, for a chance of it working, and a very little chance too.

Ashley · 1 year ago

I agree that it's just thу waste of money!

Nick Stamoulis · 1 year ago

It would not surprise me if this happened, but I think Mircosoft should focus less on technology and more on bringing over users. Why does the mass market use Google and Yahoo! only to search? Technology yes, but it goes much deeper than that, comfort level, brand, etc…

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Eva White · 1 year ago

Its true that natural language would have worked some time back, but now everyone is using only key words. So whats the big fuss all about?

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Goran Web Design · 1 year ago

$100 Million might seem little for Microsoft, but compared to other recent online acquisitions this is substantial. There must be hidden agendas that we are not sure of as yet.

Scott · 1 year ago

Geesh. Has anyone performed a search on Powerset? They have a long ways to go to get their results close to relevant.

I searched terms like "how to sell my business", "what's my business worth?", "raleigh weather" and a number of other queries --- the first couple of results weren't even close to relevant!

Considering MS' struggles with search engine market share --- this looks to be a long-term project in development (kind of like most first round QBs taken in the NFL draft).

YouGov · 1 year ago

Probably a waste of money - in my opinion