Cambridge, UK-based True Knowledge released its natural language search engine into private beta yesterday (a story broken by TechCrunchUK).
Like the much-anticipated Powerset, the company aims to give appropriate answers to natural language queries, even if key query terms are not included in the data being indexed. Current search engines are unable to return appropriate results for these queries.
At first glance True Knowledge and Powerset are competitors - but in fact they really aren’t. Powerset is both indexing the web and working to convert natural language queries into database-understandable queries. True Knowledge is only tackling half the problem - the conversion of queries. They are not indexing the web.
Instead, True Knowledge is grabbing data from structured databases, like, for example, the CIA Factbook. In many ways, they are more comparable with Freebase, a startup focused on gathering all the structured data on the web.
The engine certainly looks like it will be useful, though. Results can be returned based on inference of the intended meaning. So a question about if someone is married or not can be answered even if there is no specific structured data about that question. See the demo video to get a better idea of what it is capable of:
See all
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So ultimately, True Knowledge will be acquired. That business model can not possibly stand and thrive on its own - but can definitely be a hi tech search asset.
interesting.
One of the non-Google camp on search will acquire this company, use it on their massive, freshly crawled data, and leapfrog Google to become the most valuable company in the U.S. in 4 years.
When that happens, remember, you read it here first.
who has a relationship with orli?
the link at the end is useful for?
***** ********** ********** ********** *****
Well done Mike… you finally caught up with yesterdays news.
This was posted over at http://www.techmilk.com almost 24 hours ago!
Nice to get your take on it though
@5
mike must be doing something right because your here bitching about it.
BTW who ever designed this comment system should be shot
@6… I did say that he had a good take on it.
Far from bitching compared to what normally gets written on here 
hehe
Also, agreed, this comment system sucks.
Yeah, we’re fixing comments and a lot of other stuff. Pete, don’t be like that. There are ways to get a link without looking like a jerk.
#4 - it’s where I found out about the site. It’s common to give attribution to someone when you write about something you heard about through them. It’s also one of the wonderful things about the blogging community that distinguishes it from MSM.
what else you guys got? I’m feeling combative tonight. Bring it.
Erm, they are not the only ones
http://thepugetnews.com/2007/1.....arch-demo/
They beat you too. What I was getting at was that I read about this yesterday
However, thank you for your take. You always know a little more than the others which i why I read here.
Wasn’t meant to come over “jerk” like
Hell, if its not another facebook post I am happy
Required for Housewives , kids and iliterate.
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
Pete, that makes two blogs I don’t read. I’ve added yours though to my reader.
I’m not sure if what you are saying is that I shouldn’t write about something that isn’t brand spanking new, or if I should have linked to those blogs (didn’t see anything when I did a quick web search) or if you just wanted to get a link in the comments.
You sure do like happy face emoticons in your comments. I find them somewhat threatening.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this commenting system. Write and click. Done. I wish all the blogs had a system like this.
I bet a good 20% of this blog’s popularity is based on how much you get comments and that is based on how easy the system is. Stick with it.
@mike
I would consider a reddit style comment system.
you should also take a page from facebook and aggregate facebook stories.
Mike, sorry, everything I am typing today is coming over wrong
I like techcrunch… always have… just keep up the good work.
(smiley goes in here)
Ah hell here it is..
this is pretty neat, but the examples are only an incremental step over what exists. google already gives appropriate answers to queries such as:
“100 pounds in kilograms”
“temperature in vancouver”
“time in paris”
“population of china”
“john lennon’s birthday”
I sense a merger with powerset down the line.
The engine still needs refinement!
I typed”world’s greatest CEO”, it returned Larry Ellison.
I threw the monitor through a plateglass wall.
The wall was replaced within 15 minutes, it happens all the time around here.
.
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
testing this miraculous comment system.
where can i get a british-speaking guy to do a demo video? there’s a business idea. rent-a-british-accent. i find the british accent adds loads of credibility, not to mention it just sounds cooler than say, an american or indian sounding dude.
except when he says “beeta.”
@fake steve ballmer - a funny post!
I like this comment system - so easy to read. Only thing missing is reply-to’s but even so it’s clean and easy to discern between posts and follow.
The presentation is more like a criticism of google search than to highlight the strengths of TK.
The context and the perspective is also not right.
Google focuses on multiple types of search and going by the 80/20 rule, since 80 % of the people are looking for content search, the Google search is mostly based on content matching.
TK is showing a specialized search which is based on creating a factual knowledgebase from data and taking search queries to run it against a set of rules which will infer on the knowledgebase.
Look at internet search as not looking for factual data..but as looking at different aspects of piece of data. look at generalized searches and not specialized search.
@19
“The wall was replaced within 15 minutes, it happens all the time around here.
”
Dont you thinkg it makes sense to have a plastic wall or something…since you are a regular reader here.
http://www.meetingflex.com
@ sorry michael
i only woud like to do some rumors … gossipcrunch!
alessio
http://www.nirot.co.il
מיתוג ,קידום מכירות , צביעה, צביעה תעשייתית, עבודות צבע, צבעים, צבעי
Nice post. Looks like another search engine that recruiters and internet sourcers can use, along with Powerset, which I just got invited to today to test out there four demos.
Comment nr 26. is SPAM !!
Comment nr 26. is not SPAM !!!!
It is an exmpal for searching the keywords in the Comment.
Comment #26 IS spam. He’s advertising industrial paint products- completely irrelevant to this site. Message to the spammer:
על תהיה מנוול. אתה עושה לנו שם רע.
@17 - Those are great examples that Google is making headway.
I’ve signed up for the beta and will enjoy testing out this technology. Funny how savvy Internet users have learned HOW to use search engines to get the answer we’re looking for instead of building technology that just gives us the answer immediately.
Surely the big search engines are working on similar technologies, right?