Powerset (company)
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Powerset was an American company based in
Powerset was working on building a
The company was in the process of "building a natural language search engine that reads and understands every sentence on the Web".
On May 11, 2008, the company unveiled a tool for searching a fixed subset of English Wikipedia using conversational phrases rather than keywords.[5]
- Acquisition by Microsoft: One significant milestone in Powerset's history was its acquisition by Microsoft on July 1, 2008, for an estimated $100 million. This acquisition was part of Microsoft's broader strategy to enhance its search capabilities and compete more effectively with other search engine providers, particularly Google.[6]
- Natural Language Search Engine: Powerset's primary focus was on developing a natural language search engine capable of understanding and interpreting user queries in a more human-like manner. Instead of simply matching keywords, Powerset aimed to comprehend the meaning behind the words, allowing for more accurate and contextually relevant search results.
- Technology and Partnerships: Powerset had licensed natural language technology from PARC, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. This technology likely played a crucial role in the development of Powerset's NLP capabilities.[7]
- Wikipedia Search Tool: In May 2008, Powerset unveiled a search tool that allowed users to search a fixed subset of English Wikipedia using conversational phrases rather than traditional keywords. This demonstrated the potential of Powerset's NLP technology in providing more precise and relevant search results.
Powerlabs
In a form of
Powerlabs' initial search results are taken from Wikipedia.[10]
Notable people
Steve Newcomb was the COO and co-founder of Powerset. Prior to joining Powerset, he was a co-founder of Loudfire, General Manager at Promptu, and was on the board of directors at Jaxtr. He left Powerset in October 2007 to form Virgance, a social startup incubator.
Lorenzo Thione (born in
Ronald Kaplan, former manager of research in Natural Language Theory and Technology at PARC, served as the company's CTO and CSO.[15]
Ryan Ferrier is a member of the founding team of Powerset. He managed personnel and internal operations. After 2008 he went on to co-found Serious Business, which made Facebook applications and was later bought by Zynga.
Another Powerset alumnus, Alex Le, became CTO of Serious Business and went on to become an executive producer at Zynga when it bought the company. Siqi Chen founded a stealth startup in mobile computing after leaving Powerset.[16]
Tom Preston-Werner worked at Powerset and left after the acquisition[17] to found GitHub.
Investors
Powerset attracted a wide range of investors, many of whom had considerable experience in the
Among the better-known investors:
- Cnet
- CEO of PayPal
- Luke Nosek, founder of PayPal
- Todd Parker. Managing Partner, Hidden River Ventures
- Reid Hoffman, executive vice president of PayPal and founder of LinkedIn
- First Round Capital, seed-stage venture firm
See also
- Bing (search engine)
- Apache HBase
References
- ^ Helft, Miguel (2007-01-01). "In Silicon Valley, the Race Is On to Trump Google". The New York Times.
- ^ Powerset Blog : Microsoft to Acquire Powerset Archived July 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Powerset Blog: Powerset launches Powerset Labs at TechCrunch40". Archived from the original on October 30, 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
- ^ Helft, Miguel (2007-02-09). "In a Search Refinement, a Chance to Rival Google". The New York Times.
- ^ Powerset Debuts With Search of Wikipedia - NYTimes.com. Bits.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-21.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (2008-07-01). "Ok, Now It's Done. Microsoft To Acquire Powerset". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- ^ "Research Services, Open Innovation and Breakthrough Technology". PARC. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
- Business Week. Archived from the originalon April 15, 2008.
- ^ Helft, Miguel (2007-09-17). "Powerset to Skeptics: Try Us". The New York Times.
- ^ Kopytoff, Verne (2007-09-17). "Power is turned on, a bit, at Powerset". SFgate.com (San Francisco Chronicle).
- ^ "Barney Pell's Personal History". Archived from the original on October 14, 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ "Barney Pell's Weblog". Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ a b c "Powerset Founders". Archived from the original on 2007-10-27. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^
"MoonEx aims to scour moon for rare materials". Los Angeles Times. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles. ... The company is among several teams hoping to someday win the Google Lunar X Prize competition, a $30-million race to the moon in which a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface and have it explore at least 1/3 of a mile. It also must transmit high definition video and images back to Earth before 2016. ... should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013
- ^ Powerset press release, 2007-03-17 Archived October 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Robin Wauters (2010-02-11). "Zynga Buys Social Gaming Startup Serious Business". Retrieved 2013-04-12.
- ^ Steve Newcomb (2010). "Cult Creation".
- ^ Powerset press release, 2006-11-02 Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Powerset press release, November 2007 Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ PARC press release, 2007 Archived May 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Powerset main web site - redirects to Bing
- Powerset acquired by Microsoft