New search engine

[Realitycheck]

Though it only searches Wikipedia at the moment. This could be the formula that Microsoft could scoop up to tackle Google. It factors in semantics and gives you a greater diversity of hits than your typical query. Here's an article:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080512/wr_nm/powerset_dc

 

http://www.powerset.com/

 

Here's a list of top results for a search on "green":

 

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570-nm. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered one of the additive primary color. On the HSV color wheel, the complement of green is magenta; that is, a purple... Read complete Wikipedia article

 

Green

It is used to describe plants or the ocean. ... Several minerals have a green color, including the emerald, which is colored green by its chromium content.

 

Green

If Green! was part of the governing federal coalition, the its minister is listed. ... In contrast to other parties Green!

 

Green politics

Green economics focuses on the importance of the health of the biosphere to human well-being. ... Critique of green policy

 

Green party

Any party, faction, or politician may be labeled "green" if it emphasizes environmental causes. ... Specific Green Parties

 

Green (name)

For other uses, see Green (disambiguation). ... Bennie Green (1923-1977), jazz trombonist

 

Green Lantern

Its title would change to Green Lantern Corps at one point as the popularity rose and waned. ... Modern Age Green Lanterns

 

Green Arrow

Written and illustrated by Mike Grell, the revamp was launched with the controversial "Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters" mini-series.

 

Green building

The city is home to many examples of green buildings and sustainable development such as the CERES Environmental Park.

 

Green tea

The highest grade Japanese green tea cultivated in special way. ... Green Tea from Ceylon

 

Green roof

It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. ... Green roofs have more demanding structural standards.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If this becomes a hit, web designers will finally have a motivation to write clearly: it ups your search engine rankings!

[bascule]

This is only a subset of the capabilities they've been touting for quite some time. Namely, they're aiming to provide "natural language search", to where you can phrase a specific question and receive answers, e.g. "When did Albert Einstein die?"

 

What they've launched is interesting, but not what they advertised. In the meantime, Google has done an excellent job providing answers to those sort of semantic inquiries, e.g. http://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+albert+einstein+die

[Pangloss]

Yeah the Google people are pretty big on that. Search engines being a big focus of CS research, a fact which always stymies the media types ("uh, it doesn't look very shiny, why all the fuss?"). There's a reason the standard college textbook on artificial intelligence was co-authored by Google's research chief.

[Realitycheck]

I have only recently gotten around to trying out google, and yes, it is infinitely better than yahoo. However, it seems that the difference is not in search algorithms, but rather that google possibly searches from a greater volume of data.