Powerset Hype, Part Deux
Powerset, the company that's made no secret of wanting to challenge Google's search dominance, has seeded a few publications--and thus the whole tech blogosphere, sigh--with the news that it's reached an exclusive deal to license PARC's search technology. In a way, Powerset is turning Google's marketing strategy against it. Years ago, Google had the audacity to set an immense goal for itself (organize the world's info, yada yada yada) and traded on that scope in its early relationship with the press. Reporters couldn't resist, it was just too out there. Powerset is doing the same thing, but it has the temerity to suggest--repeatedly and sight unseen--that it can best Google. It's a compelling storyline. Arrington puts Powerset in context, and Danny deconstructs the hype surrounding natural language search. I'm already bored. |
Comments (1)
The end of search boredom, Steve...
As promising as their natural language platform sounds; and it does; the greatest threat to Google's growing hegemony in the search/paid search arenas...given that about 1/2 of all searches are known to be for products and services...may actually spring from patent pending (#11/250,908) paid match, which will target people's actual demographic and psychographic traits and characteristics (keytraits) instead of just the words we all type into little search boxes.
Though, like Powerset�s, paid match is not yet an operating system, our own US Dept of Labor does run a very popular service (over 500,000 users/month) which provides an enlightening and instructive peak at the potential that such a paid match search/ad platform possesses.
Called GovBenefits (available at govbenefits.gov), it utilizes a personal profile and a match engine to determine what government benefit programs people qualify for.
Were such a system populated with the 100's of thousands to millions of products and services companies provide nation/worldwide instead of just the 400-odd government programs it includes now, one can only imagine what its public popularity would be...
...and with the world�s advertisers having the ability to pinpoint target and control; via bidding directly on those keytraits most relevant and applicable to their products and services, exactly who sees their ads (goodbye click fraud); one can also only imagine the deleterious effects that such an elegant and superior system/platform would have on a 95% PPC income dependent company like Google...
Posted by Steve Morsa | February 9, 2007 12:41 PM