May 11th, 2008
The buzz tonight (Sunday) is about the launch of Powerset the new semantic search engine that is showing us that Wikipedia really does have good information to offer.
Limited to just Wikipedia for now, Powerset is more of a technology showcase than a useful tool, but if you’re looking for something that you’d turn to Wikipedia for, Powerset should be your first choice, not Wikipedia itself.
While Techmeme is abuzz about Powerset, and for good reason because it is very powerful and a true innovation in search, I do have some questions about it … first here are some quotes that I thought were pretty insightful on semantic search and Powerset:
It has been a long time coming, but Powerset, a San Francisco-based contextual-semantic search engine has finally launched. I urge you to try it out, for this is quite an impressive search efforts, despite the fact that search is currently limited to Wikipedia along with some supplementary results from Metaweb’s Freebase. I think they have made Wikipedia much more easier to use. I like how one can do more topic-based searches and get a holistic view of the information you’re looking for.–Powerset Is Live - GigaOM
There is no way to look at Powerset today and determine if it can be as disruptive to search as Google was when it launched almost a decade ago. That’s because it only queries Wikipedia, and so there is little need for proper ranking algorithms to sort the good from the bad results. But what user can see is how effective a way it is to gather information quickly. For someone doing research, Powerset effectively removes a number of steps towards getting to the final information. It is particularly effective when the information needed is on many different web pages.–Powerset Launches Showcase For User Search Experience
Powerset’s Wikipedia search engine isn’t going to slow down the Google in the near term, but it will raise the bar on the search experience for all players. “There are implications beyond Wikipedia,” Pell said. ” Search is not done. You can see the emerging Semantic Web with our integration of Wikipedia and Freebase. We will add other components with structured data and ways to answers questions.” Powerset has said that the longer term plan is to read, linguistically analyze and index 20 billion documents on the Web, which will be a costly and ambitious undertaking. (Getting acquired by Microsoft would be helpful for that project. Powerset has received $12.5 million in Series A funding from Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, and angel investors in 2006.)–Powerset brings the Semantic Web to Wikipedia | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com
See also: Powerset Launches “Understanding Engine” For Wikipedia Content –Powerset Launches: Ask Jeeves 2.0
Is Powerset and semantic search the David twirling a slingshot at Goliath Google’s skull or are we just looking at a (powerful) nice tool?
A little of both, actually, and if Google is smart they will snap them up before Microsoft does.
Enterprise Search Appliance–Golden Ticket for Powerset
Right now both Microsoft and Google sell enterprise search tools. No, not which turbo life to get to shuttle bay 5, tools to find “stuff” within large companies. Having been in a rather company, let me tell you, there is a lot of “stuff” that’s around. More things are “lost” than ever have been created.
Corporate CMS systems and search were supposed to help us all out of this bind, but yet I think they still fall short. However, what if you could index all the documents, emails, databases, reports, etc sitting around in various files shares and let people find then by asking questions they normally would. Things like “how many new compounds were discovered between 1993 and 2003?” or “best practices for rolling out knowledge management systems”. These are the questions people ask everyday and still have trouble finding the answers to, and not because they don’t exist (psst, I wrote about the second one when I was at Glaxo–it’s probably lost now, case in point), but because they are nearly impossible to find.
Now if Google or Microsoft could sell a box with these semantic engine, and it’s given a month to start indexing…imagine what you might find?
Exactly.
Now, break out the chequebooks, because your company is going to want one (or be able to subscribe to one).
Tags: PARC, powerset, semantic search, web search, wikipediaShare This
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Tris Hussey -- 0 comments
May 11th, 2008
Here are some news items that have caught my eye in the past bit, with a little commentary as well.
Most people will tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So if you’re in Montreal, and you’re interested in technology and entrepreneurship, you should think about joining us for breakfast on Tuesday, May 13th @ 9am at Bistro, Etc. May’s Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast
Viigo has announced a new round of funding today. They had previously raised a total of $6.4M and this round, at $1.5M now puts them at a total of $7.9M in angel and VC investment. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » viigo.com - A new round of funding and a cool new app
I’ve tried Viigo and b5 even has their own version of it for download … I’ve played with some of their alpha products in the past. I’ll be interested to see what comes out of this new investment.
I am putting the final touches on an auto-clustering, multi-size pointer map using Google Maps plus javascript magic. It is interesting to see a map of all the startups in Canada — lots of new discoveries. a canadian startup » Blog Archive » StartupMap
Catch the Brainwaves is our ongoing series of interviews with a variety of folks participating in blogging and social media. I ask them ten questions and they respond with their brilliant answers and insights! Today we have a special Q&A session where we are featuring Toronto Globe and Mail technology writer and blogger extraordinaire Mathew Ingram. Mathew Ingram | Broadcasting Brain
So, with the most recent release, we’re giving away a snippet of HTML code that you can use to embed your map into any website. The embedded map is interactive and lets users move around to discover your photos without having to visit the PlanetEye website. For example, you can drag the map and as you do the photos at the top will be updated to include the best ranked photos in whichever area of the map is currently visible. You can also mouse over the photos and a little yellow viewfinder will hint at where that photo was taken. This feature works for your own photos or those from other people that you have collected into Travel Packs.PlanetEye » Blog Archive » PlanetEye maps everywhere
Facebook-like services for firms, allowing their employees to improve in-house communications and share information. The financing will enable IGLOO to extend and commercialize its suite of collaborative social networking tools.IGLOO raises $4 Million from RBC | Techvibes Blog
I got an email from Robert about this earlier this week. Social networking in the enterprise, yes this has potential. If you can combine it with really god collaboration tools, then IGLOO could really shine. While there are free, open-source ways to do this stuff, IT likes software that you get support with.
Fresh off of the recent Vancouver NetSquared event (also known as NetTuesday), I just got swamped with work and thus was pretty much unable to write a recap. However, since I have a meeting shortly and I can’t really focus much on work, I figured I might as well write a couple of comments on the meeting. Vancouver NetTuesday for May 2008 recap « Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment
I have been talking with the guys at 37signals and we have decided to open up the Lypp + Highrise Mashup contest to include all of the 37signals APIs. This means that developers can integrate Lypp with Campfire, Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboards et al! 37signals & Lypp VoIP Mashup Expanded « A blog about Telephony and Business Communications | Lypp VoIP API | Lypp.com
The CIX is not perfect. The concept of pitching a room full of VCs for money has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the fact that the majority of the VCs who attended CIX in the morning did not stick around to see the pitches in the afternoon. Add on top of that the likelihood of this conference giving birth to a successful deal directly from the pitches, and you are in for a lot of disappointed attendees. It is my hope that CIX will look a lot different next year. Normally that would be too much to ask, but in the last few months I have gotten to know Robert Montgomery, the invisible hand behind the CIX conference, and he gives me hope. StartupNorth » Blog Archive » CIX - Our chance to create something great?
This week was a slow posting week here on ML2. It’s given me a chance to reflect a bit on what I’m writing here. For the next little while I’m going to experiment with these speedlinking posts, the daily bookmarks posts, a few reviews, and more general Web 2.0 articles.
Yes, I’ll still be covering Canadian tech, that isn’t going to change, but I do want to expand the readership and appeal of this blog beyond our borders.
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By Tris Hussey -- 1 comment
May 10th, 2008
Few more interesting bits of news that I saw earlier today: DrupalCamp, cheap electronics and the wasteful culture, and a Montreal Codefest:
Information from the sessions can be found on the DrupalCamp Vancouver website and I’ll try to get a couple posts out of John as well.–DrupalCamp Vancouver Wrap Up » Vancouver Blog Miss 604
The consumer electronics industry is perhaps the worst offender. When you’re buying $29 DVD players or even $400 computers, throwing them out after a year or two has become fairly common. If something goes wrong with them, there’s no sense repairing them when the replacement cost is not that much higher. It’s a terrific environment for people who want and/or like new things but terrible for the environment. Sooner rather than later, consumers need to start realizing that there is a cost associated with buying cheap products with a short shelf life. Think about what all the consumer electronics you’ve purchased over the past five years would look like if you threw them into a pile on your front lawn.–The Disposable Economy Has to Change | Mark Evans
Codefest is a 3-day event due next week, from May 16th to May 18th. The event’s tagline is “2 days to optimize and improve your favorite free / Open Source project”.–Montreal Tech Watch » Upcoming: Codefest, a weekend coding session for open source projects
Again, this is a bit of an experiment here. Let me know your thoughts.
Tags: consumer culture, disposible culture, DrupalCamp, drupalcampvancouver, montreal codefestShare This
By Tris Hussey -- 0 comments
May 2nd, 2008
I haven’t been posting lately and it’s not because there hasn’t been a lot of news. There has been plenty of news, there just hasn’t been enough of Tris recently.
I’ve finally got things under control, but now it’s catch up time.
If you sent me stuff and I said “sure I’ll blog it” and I haven’t, it’s nothing personal … I just couldn’t get it all done.
Over the weekend I’ll be updating stuff here … en mass I’m sure.
So until then…
Tags: Canadian tech news, MapleLeaf 2.0, tech newsShare This
By Tris Hussey -- 1 comment
April 28th, 2008
My friend Deb Schultz is a deep thinker. Something I love about talking with her. Okay that and she makes me laugh really hard. She has one of those 30,000 foot views of the world. Perspective. Something that we often forget as we write about the latest machinations of the Web 2.0 world.
Recently Deb, and others, have challenged us to do more with the tools we’ve been given. Take this amazing stuff and push the boundaries a little, do cool things, see what we can do beyond say how nice a day it is in 140 chars or fewer.
Deb being Deb, as humble as ever, ends her post like this:
Now, I am not saying we have all the answers or even know how any of this will pan out. Existing infrastructures [technical, financial, organizational and cultural] mean certain changes will be slow while others will circumvent the roadblocks that stand in their way.
What I do know is that if you do not ask the right questions up front and reach for the sky - well - you just ain’t gonna get very far. Source: Deborah Schultz: Seriously, we can do MORE
Which we should all take as a personal challenge to step back, look around, and see WTF we can do with all this stuff.
Now, let’s get to it.
Tags: Deb Schultz, Technology, tools, web 2.0Share This
By Tris Hussey -- 5 comments
April 25th, 2008
It’s a busy time here at b5media. We’re growing, expanding, and gearing up for great stuff. We got word internally last week that Rachel Segal is joining us at b5 media–word is as a marketing honcho–which is very, very cool. I waited until Rachel had made this public before I blabbed–good thing I didn’t have to wait long:
b5media - a rapidly growing blog network that I’ve been familiar with for quite some time now. Just a thirty minute walk from my apartment and home to a fantastic crew I’m thrilled and honoured to start working with (notice the ‘u’ - I really am home…). Fortunately for me, I don’t have an international move looming like other startup junkies I know…but I do have some difficult emotions to sort through. Fortunately, I’m running toward something - and that something is an incredibly big opportunity I’m dying to dig into. Source: Debanter » Blog Archive » Back to LA, one last time…for now.
One of the things her dad, Rick Segal, talks about is hiring the best people in your startup to make it shine. You can’t do everything in your company, you can’t be an expert in everything. It might have been your idea, you might have used a couple close friends/early employees to get everything done, but to “take it to the next level” you have to find the experts who can help you.
I’ve been reading Rachel’s stuff for a while and I’m excited about working with her.
Boy, I hope she knows what she’s in for, we’re a pretty crazy bunch!
Tags: b5media, hiring, Rachel Segal, Rick Segal, startupsShare This
By Tris Hussey -- 5 comments
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