Kicking the tires on Powerset
I (finally) gained entrance into Powerlabs and gave it the once over. They are all about showcasing their search technology, which is cool and all, but I was hoping I could see a demo where it extracted data from the web. (Perhaps in time.) However, what I did see looked pretty interesting. So far, they are demonstrating their goods by scanning over Wikipedia. Let me show you what I mean.
First, I log in. (This is what the dashboard looks like.) What I like right off is that Powerlabs has a video for each product they have in beta, so you won’t have to figure anything out. (See the arrow?)
There are 4 demos currently available on Powerset (from what I can tell). The first is “Quotes.” With the Quotes I can find answers on Wikipedia to questions like:
“what did Steve Jobs say about Apple?”
“who criticized Google?”
Powermouse (I love the icon!) is not really a search tool as it is a way to show you “how structured information is extracted from open text” and “allows you to search for and navigate through facts encoded in our Wikipedia index.”
The Arts icon lets you find answers from Wikipedia from questions like:
“what did Mozart compose?”
“what did Andy Warhol paint?”
“who depicted urban life?”
However, the one that caught my attention the most was the “Business” demo. Go figure…
Long time readers know that as a Searchologist with a focus on Recruitment Research that I am always looking for an angle to find new leads. So, let me show you how I leveraged the “Business” demo to do just that. I begin by clicking the big green “Launch” button. (Of course, after clicking the “Business” link in the Demos section.)
I am taken to this page.
From here, I can either input a query based on the question being asked. In this case, “Who manufactures (fill in the blank)?” Or, I can choose from a different set of questions and fill in those blanks. I decide to go with another question, so I click the double-arrows or the icon of the bull (both work) to get a new set of questions. I decide to use “Who works for X?”
I choose “Apple” as my query term and hit the “Go” button.
Powerset does its thing searching for data on Wikipedia. (Takes about 2 seconds if that long.)
This is what the results page looks like. (See picture below) On the left are the results from Powerset and on the right “The Other Guys,” whomever they are.
From here you are encouraged to vote on the results. A thumbs-up means that you like what Powerset gave you and the thumbs-down… not-so-much. In the screenshot below, I give 3 thumbs up votes on Powerset results and 1 for “The Other Guys.”
I have not gone through everything as thoroughly, at least not yet. They have a lot of discussions going on in their forums and I sense that they are paying close attention. Not sure how much of a player Powerset will be in the search industry, but are off to a good start. I’ll keep watching. Nothing says "Thanks for posting this Jim!" like Starbucks Coffee. Click here to buy me a cup (or two).
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Wow, thanks for the detailed post! I look forward to your participation in Powerlabs. If you have ideas about how to make things better, be sure to post an idea.
-Mark Johnson, Powerlabs Product Manager