Company's first public release goes beyond the search results page, adding

value throughout the entire search process

    SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 /PRNewswire/ --
 
     News Facts:
 
      *    Powerset, a company pioneering natural language technology, today
           announced the launch of its publicly available beta product that
           reinvents how users search and discover information from
           Wikipedia(TM).
      *    Powerset's breakthrough natural language technology is based on
           patents licensed from PARC (formerly Xerox PARC) and Powerset's
           proprietary research. The technology, which can be applied to any
           topic and any domain, reads and extracts meaning from every sentence
           in Wikipedia.
      *    This release is the first step in Powerset changing the way users
           search and consume web content. Unlike traditional search engines,
           which look for words, Powerset matches the meaning of the user's
           query to the meaning of sentences.
      *    Powerset currently searches content from leading free content
           providers:
           o    Powerset searches over 2.5 million Wikipedia topics in English
           o    For many questions, Powerset returns answers from Freebase(TM),
                an open, shared database of the world's information
      *    Powerset's search results page includes the following helpful
           features (screenshots:
           http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerset/tags/resultspage/)
           o    Factz -- When users enter a topic query, Powerset assembles a
                compact summary of interesting, and sometimes surprising Factz,
                extracted from pages across Wikipedia
           o    Dossiers -- Powerset creates a summary of information found in
                Freebase and Wikipedia to give users a quick overview about a
                topic
           o    Answers -- For many questions, Powerset automatically assembles
                an answer list from sentences in Wikipedia or data in Freebase
           o    Semantic Highlighting -- The most relevant search results are
                highlighted based on the meaning of a user's question
           o    Minibrowser -- A result can be expanded to show the snippet in
                the context of the full Wikipedia article
      *    When users click on a search result, Powerset offers features that
           summarize long pages of content, allowing users to find and browse
           information quickly (screenshots:
           http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerset/tags/enhancedwikipediapage/)
           o    Article Outline -- A navigational tool that follows users as
                they read Wikipedia articles
           o    Summary of Factz -- An automatically generated summary of the
                key Factz on the page, which often reads like the Cliff's
                Notes(TM) for the article
           o    Explore Factz -- Offers a helpful guide of key relationships
                and topics in the page, each of which can be clicked to
                highlight relevant Factz
           o    Semantic Search in Article -- Brings Powerset semantic search
                and highlighting directly into Wikipedia articles.
      *    Powerset's technology improves the entire search and discovery
           experience by:
           o    Allowing users to express themselves in the search box through
                keywords, phrases, or simple questions.
           o    Providing more accurate search results on the page, often
                answering questions directly, and aggregating information from
                across multiple articles.
           o    Offering a better way to search, digest and navigate content on
                Wikipedia quickly.
 
 
     LINKS:
     Please use this link to access Powerset -- http://www.powerset.com/
     Powerset blog -- http://blog.powerset.com/
     Powerset Twitter feed -- http://twitter.com/powerset
     Powerset Launch Screenshots --
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerset/sets/72157604966497900/
     Powerset Launch Video -- http://vimeo.com/994819
 
     Quotes, attributable to Powerset executives:
 
      *    "Wikipedia serves a fundamental human need -- a single destination
           to find a broad range of information," according to Barney Pell,
           Powerset co-founder and CTO. "This broad content base is a great way
           for us to showcase Powerset's functionality while giving people a
           faster time to satisfaction." (http://www.barneypell.com)
      *    "Our first product has only touched the surface of what our
           technology will allow," said Lorenzo Thione, co-founder and product
           architect. "Our team of computational linguists, computer scientists
           and engineers, together with the PARC technology we licensed, has
           allowed us to develop a solid platform to begin to change the way
           people consume content."
      *    "We have focused on making Powerset able to read and understand
           documents on the web as part of a broader vision to change the way
           people interact with technology," said Scott Prevost, general
           manager and director of product. "This first product will make
           people's search experiences on Wikipedia and Freebase easier, more
           natural and more relevant."
 
     Quote, attributable to Carla Thompson, senior analyst with Guidewire
 Group:
 
      *    "Powerset's new Wikipedia experience is an impressive achievement,
           and goes beyond what I expected to see from Powerset's first public
           product," said Carla Thompson, senior analyst with Guidewire Group.
           "In many ways, it defines a new search category altogether and
           brings the power of semantics to mass consumers. Once users have
           experienced the usability and deep relevance of Powerset-enabled
           Wikipedia search, I imagine they'll start demanding this level of
           intelligence from all content channels."
           (http://guidewiregroup.wordpress.com/)
 
     Technorati Tags:
      Powerset -- http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/powerset
      search -- http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/search
      natural language --
       http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/natural+language+search
      nlp -- http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/nlp
      web 2.0 -- http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/web+2.0
 
     CONTACT:  Julie Crabill, powersetpr@shiftcomm.com, for Powerset
 
 

SOURCE Powerset