News Facts:

-- Powerset, a company pioneering natural language technology, todayannounced the launch of its publicly available beta product that reinventshow users search and discover information from Wikipedia(TM).

-- Powerset's breakthrough natural language technology is based on patentslicensed from PARC (formerly Xerox PARC) and Powerset's proprietaryresearch. The technology, which can be applied to any topic and any domain,reads and extracts meaning from every sentence in Wikipedia.

-- This release is the first step in Powerset changing the way userssearch and consume web content. Unlike traditional search engines, whichlook for words, Powerset matches the meaning of the user's query to themeaning of sentences.

-- Powerset currently searches content from leading free contentproviders:

--  Powerset searches over 2.5 million Wikipedia topics in English--  For many questions, Powerset returns answers from Freebase(TM), an    open, shared database of the world's information    

-- Powerset's search results page includes the following helpful features(screenshots)

--  Factz -- When users enter a topic query, Powerset assembles a compact    summary of interesting, and sometimes surprising Factz, extracted from    pages across Wikipedia--  Dossiers -- Powerset creates a summary of information found in    Freebase and Wikipedia to give users a quick overview about a topic--  Answers -- For many questions, Powerset automatically assembles an    answer list from sentences in Wikipedia or data in Freebase--  Semantic Highlighting -- The most relevant search results are    highlighted based on the meaning of a user's question--  Minibrowser -- A result can be expanded to show the snippet in the    context of the full Wikipedia article    

-- When users click on a search result, Powerset offers features thatsummarize long pages of content, allowing users to find and browseinformation quickly (screenshots)

--  Article Outline -- A navigational tool that follows users as they read    Wikipedia articles--  Summary of Factz -- An automatically generated summary of the key    Factz on the page, which often reads like the Cliff's Notes(TM) for the    article--  Explore Factz -- Offers a helpful guide of key relationships and    topics in the page, each of which can be clicked to highlight relevant    Factz--  Semantic Search in Article -- Brings Powerset semantic search and    highlighting directly into Wikipedia articles.    

-- Powerset's technology improves the entire search and discoveryexperience by:

--  Allowing users to express themselves in the search box through    keywords, phrases, or simple questions.--  Providing more accurate search results on the page, often answering    questions directly, and aggregating information from across multiple    articles.--  Offering a better way to search, digest and navigate content on    Wikipedia quickly.    

LINKS:

Please use this link to access Powerset

Powerset blog

Powerset Twitter feed

Powerset Launch Screenshots

Powerset Launch Video

Quotes, attributable to Powerset executives:

-- "Wikipedia serves a fundamental human need -- a single destination tofind a broad range of information," according to Barney Pell, Powerset co-founder andCTO. "This broad content base is a great way for us to showcase Powerset'sfunctionality while giving people a faster time to satisfaction."

-- "Our first product has only touched the surface of what our technologywill allow," said Lorenzo Thione, co-founder and product architect. "Ourteam of computational linguists, computer scientists and engineers,together with the PARC technology we licensed, has allowed us to develop asolid platform to begin to change the way people consume content."

-- "We have focused on making Powerset able to read and understanddocuments on the web as part of a broader vision to change the way peopleinteract with technology," said Scott Prevost, general manager and directorof product. "This first product will make people's search experiences onWikipedia and Freebase easier, more natural and more relevant."

Quote, attributable to Carla Thompson, senior analyst with Guidewire Group:

-- "Powerset's new Wikipedia experience is an impressive achievement, andgoes beyond what I expected to see from Powerset's first public product,"said Carla Thompson,senior analyst with Guidewire Group. "In many ways, it defines a new searchcategory altogether and brings the power of semantics to mass consumers.Once users have experienced the usability and deep relevance ofPowerset-enabled Wikipedia search, I imagine they'll start demanding thislevel of intelligence from all content channels."

Please contact Julie Crabill toarrange an interview and/or for additional quotes.

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