SearchEngineUpdate with Vanessa Zamora - 05-12-2008 Part I
Abstract: 1. Semantic Search Engine Powerset Launches In Beta, 2. Facebook Connect & Google Friend Connect Announced
Vanessa Zamora
Video Content Producer, SearchEngineWorld
5:21 pm on May 12, 2008 (utc 0)
Transcript
Monday May 12, 2008
Semantic Search Engine Powerset Launches In Beta
San Francisco-based natural language search engine start up Powerset has launched a public beta test of its product that delivers search results based on information derived from 2.5 million pages of online encyclopedia Wikipedia and open, shared database Freebase. Unlike traditional search engines that deliver results based on words, Powerset matches the meaning of the user’s query to the meaning of sentences to deliver conceptual based search results. Powerset's breakthrough natural language technology is based on patents licensed from the Palo Alto Research Center and Powerset's proprietary research with a service that aims to showcase what the search engine could provide with its technology should it become a full web index. Powerset plans to expand users ability to search other Web sites using natural language phrases or questions by first indexing other “data sets” beyond Wikipedia.
Facebook Connect & Google Friend Connect Announced
Following Friday’s SearchEngineWorld report about the announcement of social networking site Myspace’s launch of its Data Availability product on Thursday, both search giant Google and social networking Web site Facebook announced plans to release similar competing products. Google will launch “Friend Connect” and Facebook has announced the launch of “Facebook Connect” to enable users to securely send personal profile data, including friend lists and presence/status information, to third party sites to help users avoid having to enter the same information to multiple Web sites. The three Web companies are among those competing to become the home base for users to store and share their online personal profile data. Facebook and MySpace have an advantage over Google, already controlling a great deal of profile information for their active users. Facebook offers an additional feature to streamline the process that enables users to log in to Web sites and create accounts with their Facebook names and passwords. Google partners include its own social networking Web site Orkut and Plaxo. MySpace has teamed with Yahoo, eBay, Twitter, and their own Photobucket; while Facebook has news Web site Digg on board. The idea surrounding more open social networks was introduced by Google In 2007 with the launch of its OpenSocial Initiative that provides a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks that choose to participate.
5:21 pm on May 12, 2008 (utc 0)