JustinSpeak

Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

This is pretty cool, but the real test will be when they roll this sucker out to search the entire web. Google is okay, but this whole idea of semantic search really seems like the bees knees. Go give Powerset a try, I think you’ll be impressed.

Five things I like about Powerset:

1. Beautifully designed UI. Very nice boys (and girls).
2. It is not Google.
3. The fact that it presents key facts based on your query, summarizes information, and tries to read between the lines is very cool.
4. If you don’t quite get your query right, I can see how the extra stuff they offer would help guide your search.

Five things I don’t like about Powerset:

1. You almost get too much information at once.
2. I have to change the way I write search strings. I’m too used to keyword searching.
3. “Factz” is a lame name for a very cool feature.
4. I’m not confident they are going to be able to compete in the advertising space. As someone who works with Google Adwords every day, I can confidently tell you that is the most finely oiled machine you can find in advertising. It works, it delivers ROI, and they provide lots of great detail.
5. It isn’t Google. Google has done for Internet search what Kleenex did for facial tissues. Can anyone compete? What if Google just says, “to hell with it, lets buy em!”

As always, my dearest reader, you should just make up your own mind. Give Powerset two weeks as your exclusive Wikipedia search engine. Let me, and more importantly them, know what you think.