Powerset, a natural language search engine was launched in May 2008 with the purpose of enhancing search and providing more relevant results to users by understanding the purpose behind a user’s typing a query. Powerset analyzes the entire search query including stop words like ‘by’, ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘in’, etc, unlike other major search engines, that simply pick out only the ‘keywords’ used in the query on which to return results.

Powerset hopes to ‘change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language’. By teaching their search engines the intent behind each word of a search query, as well as concepts such as time and place, Powerset has, since its launch just over a month ago, has been able to deliver exceptionally relevant and targeted results.

Currently the only source of Powerset’s search results is Wikipedia, however the company obviously plans to broaden its database by indexing information from sites apart from Wikipedia.

Making quick strides in the search technology field, Powerset recently launched a new service that allows users to search for Wikipedia articles through their iPhones. The search engine’s advantage is that it has the ability to match the search query with the exact same line or passage within an article, rather than pointing out the page for the user to then browse through to find what he/she wants.

Many other companies have tried to capitalize on the opportunity of mobile web search that accompanied the launch of the iPhone, but only to the extent of reformatting and editing Wikipedia articles to fit within the screen of the iPhone. However Powerset has gone a few steps further, providing precisely the information or passage that the user wants.

Having already made such huge advances in the field of web search, it now remains to be seen whether this new kid on the block can change the state of conventional search, enhancing search experience and achieving its ultimate goal of surpassing Google as the world’s top search engine- and we’re not just referring to mobile searches!

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