Gadgetopia

Powerset aims to outsmart Google: I was very ho-hum about this article — someone else wants to beat Google, blah, blah. Then I got to this section. Interesting.

This isn’t the first time a search engine has tried to understand simple English, but Powerset has drawn more attention because its natural-language technology is being licensed from the Palo Alto Research Center.

Better known as PARC, the Xerox subsidiary is renowned for hatching breakthroughs — like the computer mouse and the graphical interface for personal computers — that were later commercialized by other companies.

PARC’s top natural-language specialist, Ronald Kaplan, is now Powerset’s chief technology and scientific officer.

“We have the best natural-language search technology that has ever been developed,” […]