Microsoft looks at Powerset after Yahoo setback

Microsoft are not a company that spends to long licking its wounds, not long after the whole Yahoo saga, the software giant is now looking towards a new deal to buy semantic search engine Powerset. Microsoft are doing all they can to try and close the gap between themselves and Google. It looks as though Microsoft will stop at nothing to become the biggest search engine.

Microsoft has said that by purchasing Powerset, they will be able to deliver a smarter way of searching the web. Powerset is a totally different search engine to one that Microsoft use, they use “semantic Web” technology which brings up results that is based on an understanding of a words meaning, as well as the context of its use. This is a totally different concept to most other search engines like Google and Yahoo; they work by primarily matching words in queries to those on a web page.

Microsoft announced the news of this new deal on July 1 and has said that they share the same vision as Powerset. Early reports say that Microsoft has offered more than $100 million in order to acquire the company; however there is no official news on how much Microsoft will end up paying for Powerset.

If the deal does go through then this could be just what Microsoft need to try and close the gap on rivals Google, in some areas search engines like Powerset outperform the likes of Google. Microsoft is in a good position as Google will find it very hard to replicate the same results as Powerset. However; Microsoft has to make sure that they do not take any shortcuts; they will have to build everything from scratch.

Google has already hired some semantic search experts, in the hope of developing this technology for themselves, looks as though Microsoft is about to get the jump on them.