Powerset, the natural language search engine that partially launched in May, has released a mobile version of their site that allows users to quickly search Wikipedia from their iPhone.
Since the release of the iPhone a number of sites including iPodia and Wapedia have released optimized versions of Wikipedia (though none actually made by the online encyclopedia). These sites reformat Wikipedia articles to better fit the iPhones screen while shrinking (or removing) images to conserve bandwidth.
What sets Powerset apart, and may make it the premier way to look up information from the iPhone, is the search engine’s ability to find both the relevant article and the exact passage that pertains to the search query. Even through the iPhone sports a relatively large screen, browsing through large amounts of text can still be a pain, which makes this feature even more valuable.
Powerset has lofty goals, aiming to use their natural search technology to overtake traditional search giants like Google. So far the company is only using Wikipedia for search results, so it’s hard to tell how well the technology will work once Powerset finally indexes the web, but for the time being it may well be the best reference tool on the iPhone.
You can watch a brief demo in the video below:
Powerset iPhone Web App Demo from officialpowerset on Vimeo.
This is incredible! It’s only a matter of time before Powerset overtakes Google!
Google should just give up, because its over, Powerset has won.
Powerset is going to DOMINATE the iPhone. They should sell their app at $100 bucks. Its revenue might reach $200 bucks by the end of this year.
@Mogilny It’s a web app, not a native Cocoa Touch app. no purchase needed.
@Ray You are right. I got too excited and overlooked the ’small’ detail that it is indeed only a web-app. A native search app on the iPhone would be the dumbest app idea ever :).
It is all very nice and cool that we can better index Wikipedia … but .. in the end, it is a very limited data source … thus … so what’s the big deal.
A mind numbing waste of time it is to “optimize” any web page for the Iphone. The darn thing can display pages as they look on the desktop so…..why?
I will never get the logic of people that take the time and money to do this especially as in very short time MORE wireless devices will be able to provide full web experiences like the Iphone making the need for customized versions of sites even more irrelevant.
@7
Optimizing for the iPhone generally includes making things single column so that you don’t have to zoom in or scroll horizontally. Also, it’s helpful to add padding to the links for idiots with fat fingers. It’s mind numbingly easy to do– so much so, that it shouldn’t even be worth blogging about.