Powerset blog

The Powerset Blog Turns a Page

Kristin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:29:00 GMT

If you have followed this blog in the past you may have wondered why the frequency of updates has slowed to an almost grinding halt. Well the simplest answer is that the Powerset team at Bing has been heads down building the next wave of features that will make Bing your favorite search engine, and has been a bit remiss in updating this blog. Back when we were on our own, we at Powerset realized the importance of building a strong and vibrant community, and keeping it informed of cool features and projects we were working on. When we joined the Microsoft family, and became part of the launch of Bing, we were happy to realize that Microsoft and Bing shared that same feeling of commitment to nurturing and growing a community that is passionate about our products. Therefore, we started to feel that consolidating our community efforts was the right choice.

With today’s post, we are discontinuing the Powerset blog and merging our efforts to keep you informed and up to date with the main Bing community blogs. From time to time, our PMs and developers will post about a new feature we launched, or what we have in store for the next generation search snippets or answers, two of the areas where the Powerset team is making direct contributions to the quality of Bing. Let me assure you, there is a ton of cool stuff coming, and we can’t wait to be able to share it with you all. So, as we say goodbye to the Powerset blog, I hope you will all still be eager to know what makes Bing special and follow the Bing community blogs, to keep up to date with everything Bing.

For our part, we promise to be on it, blogging often about what cool stuff we may have in store for you. And until then, happy binging!

Lorenzo Thione

principal program manager lead, Bing (Powerset)

Learn more with Bing Reference

Powerset — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:20:00 GMT

The Powerset team at Bing is working hard to make the Reference vertical the premier source on the web for your reference needs. We've got many new features under development, and a few that we've just launched to give you a taste for what's to come.

Until now, the only way to reach Bing Reference has been via the instant answers available at bing.com - for example, for "Albert Einstein" or "Paul Celan". We've greatly expanded the set of queries on which this answer will trigger, and we've also enabled these answers for all English-speaking markets.

But to really make the Reference vertical easier to find, we created the Reference homepage, at http://www.bing.com/reference. (Or, from the Bing homepage, click “more,” then click “Reference".)

This page provides an overview of the topics and content available within Bing Reference. On this page you can research the Bing homepage image, browse topics of the day, and see examples of queries that illustrate Powerset's strong natural-language search capabilities.

The Reference vertical still searches all of Wikipedia for each query, but now for certain queries, also provides a dossier from Freebase to help surface the most relevant results. For example try the query "Australian animals."

You'll also notice a major change in the layout of the results page: the grid view helps you browse useful results that would otherwise land below the fold. (Or, feel free to go old school and switch back to the traditional list view...)

The Freebase result also provides a simple means for choosing between alternate interpretations of the query; for example, try searching for "Springfield"or “George Washington.” For information on George Washington the inventor (as opposed to the president), simply click the “inventor” tab.

On the Reference topic pages, we’ve added a highlighting feature, which allows you to easily showcase certain passages before sharing the page with others. The highlighting feature has been a favorite feature with users on powerset.com and we are very pleased that it is now available in Bing Reference. Simply click on the "highlighter" icon below the article outline, click on the sentence(s) you want to showcase, click "highlighter" again and copy the new URL. When you share this URL, your modified page will automatically scroll to the highlighted section. It’s a great tool for sharing notes with a friend, calling out a specific sentence in your blog, or proving someone wrong in an argument.

We're excited about the changes we've lanched so far, and even more excited about what's to come. Stay tuned to the Powerset blog to hear about the latest and greatest from the Powerset team at Bing.

Tom Bogart, Senior Program Manager, Powerset division of Bing

Bing @ The 2009 Semantic Technology Conference

Powerset — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:01:00 GMT

A group of semantic technology enthusiasts descended on San Jose for the Semantic Technology Conference last week, and the Powerset division at Bing was there to show off Bing and take part in the semantic technology discussion.

There was a crew of people from team Powerset in attendance: Scott Prevost (general manager), Mark Johnson (senior program manager), Ron Kaplan (chief scientist), Stuart Robinson (research engineer), Savas Parastatidis (Microsoft research) and Katie Conry (product/marketing).

Dr. Ron Kaplan participated in a panel discussion entitled, “Semantic Search Beyond RDF” along with Riza Berkan from Hakia, Christian Hempelmann from RiverGlass, and Wen Ruan from TextWise. According to Ron, though RDF is useful for many tasks, it isn’t sufficient when it come to processing natural language semantics, the kind of technology being developed at Powerset. For example, RDF isn’t able to capture ambiguity, which is one of the critical components of any natural language system. During Ron’s talk, he talked about the limitations of RDF and contrasted it with the technology at Powerset. Check out our podcast below for more information.

Dr. Scott Prevost, general manager of the Powerset division, participated in a keynote panel entitled “Semantic Search Roundtable.” Scott Prevost, Peter Norvig from Google, Tomasz Imielinski from Ask.com, Andrew Tomkins from Yahoo! Search, William Tunstall-Pedoe of True Knowledge, and Riza Berkan, Hakia, all weighed in with their vision of semantic search. Early on in this panel discussion, moderator and Guidewire Group Senior Analyst Carla Thompson remarked, “semantic search is the answer to a question that no one is asking…so why do we need to change search?” Tomasz commented that no one was asking for an iPod before they became popular and semantic search will be the same way - people will want it when they see it. Carla later commented that there have been “three news-making launches in the past month- Wolfram Alpha, Bing and Siri.” This sparked a conversation regarding ‘conversational interfaces.’ Scott Prevost commented that, “If people are given a conversational interface, they won’t use keywords.” Later on Peter Norvig from Google was asked what he thought of Bing and he responded, “I like the idea of innovation in the user interface.” ClickZ, CNET, ZDNet, InternetNews.com, and Examiner.com all published coverage of this panel discussion.

In he exhibition hall the Powerset team demoed Bing, and discussed a wide variety of topics with conference attendees ranging from algorithms, to semantic technology, to the new brand name. Quite a few wanted to hear about Powerset’s integration into Bing. Many people left excited to start Binging.

Tweet from Aaron Gladders regarding Bing @ SemTech

Ron Kaplan had this to say on the conference: “I was very impressed with the momentum of the semantic web community. These things are really coming together, they’re beginning to be applications, beginning to be the datasets that make the applications worthwhile. And my perception is that semantic technology…is now at the take-off point. There was a kind of maturity to the technology and the discussions that I hadn’t seen a year ago or so.”

SemTech 2009 proved to be a great place to make connections with interesting people, and learn about cutting edge new technologies. We look forward to returning next year.

-Katie Conry, Powerset division of Bing

Tweet from Marc Hadfield regarding SemTech 2009

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Chief Scientist Ron Kaplan and Senior Program Manger Mark Johnson discuss SemTech 2009

Powerset & Bing

Powerset — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:59:00 GMT

Bing is here! As of today, everyone can begin to Bing. Many have already been using Bing since the June 1st preview, and the feedback has been rolling in. So we wanted to join in the conversation with some details on some of the more visible Powerset features that are now available in Bing.

The Powerset division has contributed to Bing in both subtle and more conspicuous ways. While the subtle contributions are important, they are much harder to showcase. This post will focus on how the features that our users have come to love on Powerset.com have evolved and have been integrated into Bing.

There now is a Wikipedia “Reference” vertical that can be accessed through Bing. Certain queries like “squirrel monkey” for example will trigger a reference answer. Click the “Reference” Quick Tab in the left hand rail (aka the Explore Pane) and you will land on the best Wikipedia page for that query. (Other suggested queries that trigger the Reference vertical include Facebook, Sikhism, Albert Einstein, Brassica Tournefortii, Paul Celan, Craiglist, Ferrari Enzo, Coldwell Banker, Tanita Tikaram.)

In the Reference vertical you’ll have a very similar experience searching Wikipedia as with Powerset.com, all without leaving Bing, and with the rest of the Web one click away.

Use the Article Outline on the right to quickly scan the article. Click on a header to go to the corresponding part of the page. Click "pin" to keep the outline stationary, and "top" to navigate to the top of the page.

Easily switch between images from Wikipedia and images from the Web using the Images tab.

Also, searching within the Reference vertical will bring back semantically highlighted results from the Wikipedia Reference collection.

For natural language queries related to Arts & Business, Bing will show a high-precision answer at the top of the page. From the Bing home page, try Impressionist artwork, Picasso art, and Guernica painter, for business try: ebay founder, Microsoft slogan, when was Apple founded, where was ebay founded. These results can also be used to access the Bing Reference vertical.

We are extremely proud of Bing, and proud of the contributions we’ve made. It was our goal at Powerset to change the landscape of search, and now as part of Microsoft, we believe we're doing great work toward this goal. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on our plans to further incorporate cool semantic technology into the Decision Engine. As always we’d love to hear your thoughts on the Powerset integration with Bing in the comments.

Dr. Scott Prevost, General Manager, Powerset division of Bing

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Senior Program Manager Mark Johnson and Powerset founder Lorenzo Thione discuss Bing.

New Community Site: Welcome!

Betsy — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:10:00 GMT

Welcome to the new community site, the new home of the Powerset blog. As of today, June 1, all of our blog posts will redirect to the Powerset Bing Blog.

The Bing community site is a collection of blogs, forums and event information – your go-to location for all things Bing, including webmaster content, travel, developer info and, of course, the Powerset blog. This community site will serve as a space for feedback and communication with Bing users and we look forward to being a part of the conversation!

Katie Conry, Powerset division of Bing

Bing!

Powerset — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:30:00 GMT

Today, Steve Ballmer announced the launch of Microsoft’s new search product, Bing, at the D conference. Bing is a new kind of search engine, designed to do more than find search results. Bing is a Decision Engine created to help you cut through Internet clutter to help you make faster, more informed decisions. For more information on Bing, please check out the main search blog. Though Powerset only joined Microsoft in August 2008, we are very proud of the contributions we’ve been able to make in that time. We’d also like to note that, long before the acquisition of Powerset, Microsoft’s search team was hard at work building the infrastructure and technology to make Bing possible. In the next week, we’ll be posting more information about the Powerset integration into Bing. Stay tuned to learn about how Bing is the best place to find, read, and search Wikipedia articles while still having access to great Web search.

Mark Johnson, Senior Program Manager

Powerset/Microsoft returning to Web 3.0

Powerset — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Powerset is excited to be returning to the Web 3.0 conference, May 19 to 20th 2009 in New York. Last year Powerset's general manager keynoted at the conference. This year Senior Program Manager Mark Johnson will be speaking on a smarter searching panel at 10am on Wednesday May 20th along with Genacast Ventures, Ask.com, Hakia and FT Search. If you are interested in attending you can still register on-site. If you can't make it, Powerset and Live Search will be at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose in mid June. Check back soon for additional details!

First Installment in the Powercast Series: Dave Fayram on the Future of the Semantic Web

Powerset — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:17:00 GMT

Want to know what’s been going on inside the walls of Powerset lately? Check out our first video podcast: Powercast! The many lunch room conversations we have around the office inspired us to launch a podcasting series to share the thoughts, ideas, and technology of our team with the rest of the tech community. Since Powerset is considered part of the “Semantic Web,” we often debate exactly what that means. This week, Mark Johnson sat down with Dave Fayram, a software engineer working on Powerset’s semantic search infrastructure, to get his views on the subject. Mark and Dave discussed a definition of the Semantic Web and Powerset’s role in the space. Dave gives us his take on the current state of the Semantic Web, what can be improved and his predictions for the future. We’ll be continuing our series by regularly posting new video content. Stay tuned for more and if there are hot topics you’d like to hear from us on, let us know in the comments.

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Epic PAWS Meetup: Presenters announced!

Powerset — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:13:00 GMT

We are thrilled to announce the lineup for the next Palo Alto Semantic Web (PAWS) Meetup sponsored by Microsoft on April 14 from 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. in our Mountain View offices. RSVP today and bring a friend! The Semantic Demo session will highlight semantic technology in mobile, consumer and enterprise applications, and showcase some applications from cutting-edge technology companies that have never before been demoed for the public. Presenters include:

Zemanta Semantic Blogging
ZAgile Semanti Wiki
Cogito Answers Semantic Mobile
Noovo Semantic Search and Share
Uptake Semantic Travel

Plus:

We hope to see you there!

Call for Presenters: Epic PAWS Meetup

Powerset — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The next Palo Alto Semantic Web (PAWS) Meetup will be hosted by Microsoft. The format will be many short demos of semantically inclined products and technologies. Got a unique product based on semantic technology? Do you have a geeky demo that, even though it’s demoed from the command line, will knock the socks off people? Spread the word, because we’re looking for companies and people to show off cool products. Please email kconry at microsoft dot com if you are interested, or if you’d like to suggest a company that is doing something different in semantics. Each presenter will get five minutes for their demonstration and five minutes for questions from the audience. This is a great opportunity to disseminate your product to like-minded people, get feedback from a smart group, and get people excited about what you’re doing. Come learn, geek out, meet interesting people and show off your work! The meetup will take place in the evening of April 14 at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View. We’ll have more details once we secure the presenters, but please save the date. We are accepting proposals until Wednesday, April 1. Submit now!

Try our new Ubiquity commands for Powerset and Live Search

Powerset — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:09:00 GMT

Ubiquity is a research project from Mozilla Labs that has a lot in common with Powerset: the goal of the project is to reinvent the user interface through natural language. Ubiquity uses a command-line interface to allow you to get tasks done quicker by typing in exactly what you want. If you’re a Firefox user, you can download Ubiquity here and try it out.

Powerset is excited to have written a few Ubiquity commands that you might find useful. To install the commands, you'll need to first have installed Ubiquity and then go to Powerset.com and install the command using the install toolbar at the top of your browser.

Once you have the commands installed, you can just type in “powerset

” and you’ll get a full Powerset Wikipedia search of the topic you enter. Just like in a Powerset search, we’ll show you answers from Freebase, Factz that we’ve distilled from Wikipedia, and relevant Wikpiedia articles.

As a bonus, we’ve also included commands from Live Search. For example, try typing “live sean penn” to get Live Search results for Sean Penn. You can also type “live images sean penn” to get a list of images or “live xrank sean penn” to get Sean Penn’s xRank answer. It was really simple to do this thanks to the new JSON API offered by Live Search.

In case you don’t have Ubiquity and you’re wondering what we’re talking about, we’ve included a brief video below of the Powerset Ubiquity commands and the Live Ubiquity commands. Let us know what you think!

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Update: We learned from Twitter that our Ubiquity commands were being demoed today by Aza Raskin himself at the Future of Web Apps conference. Cool!

New Highlighting Feature

Powerset — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:06:00 GMT

Like many features at Powerset, our highlighting feature came about through the ingenuity of one of our engineers. Ian was having a discussion about circular polarized filters for camera lenses with his brother. He copied and pasted some text from Wikipedia into an IM chat, but his brother was dubious: “Where did that come from?” After Ian tried, unsuccessfully, to navigate his brother to the right passage in the Wikipedia article, he thought, “There must be a better way!”

Hence, a new feature was born. User Highlighting allows you to highlight sentences on a Powerset page. The highlighted passage persists when you bookmark or share the URL.

To use, just click the highlighter icon in the Article Outline and then click any sentences that you want to highlight. You can copy and share the URL; your modified page will automatically scroll to the highlighted section. This is made possible by the fact that Powerset semantically marks up Wikipedia and knows where sentences begin and end. It’s a great tool for sharing notes with a friend, posting a specific sentence in context to your blog, or proving someone wrong in an argument.

For example, let’s say that you wanted to share with a friend that John McCain has been a guest on The Daily Show more then anyone else, as of 2006. As opposed to just sending over that bit of information, you can send a link directly to the text. Now they can read the fact in context of the Wikipedia article, and read about McCain’s other television appearances. Check out the video below for a full demonstration.

Find a great use for the Highlighting feature? Let us know in the comments.

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Powerset at Internet Librarian 2008

Powerset — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:57:00 GMT

From October 20-22 Powerset will be attending the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, CA. This year’s theme is “Beyond 2.0: User-Focused Tools & Practices,” and Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land will be making a Keynote Presentation “Search Engine Land: What’s Happening Out There?”

We’re excited to be able to speak to so many internet-savvy librarians, to show off how Powerset is a cutting-edge research tool and to gather feedback about how to make Powerset even better.

Powerset is sponsoring the Internet Café. If you’re attending, stop by to check your e-mail, learn about Powerset, and get some nifty schwag!

Powerset at Web 3.0 next week

Powerset — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Powerset is excited to be participating in Web 3.0, held in Santa Clara from October 16-17, 2008.

Scott Prevost, Powerset’s general manager, will be keynoting in the morning on Friday, where he’ll describe The Road to Semantic Search. Also, Mark Johnson, a Powerset Program Manager, will be hosting a roundtable discussion on Thursday afternoon called Semantic Startup 101 – Successes, challenges, and strategic decisions, featuring Alitora, Cerebra, Metaweb, and Evri.

If you’re interested in attending, you can get a full conference pass or just come to the Expo Hall and keynotes for only $50. We hope to see you there!

Powerset's First Live Search Projects

Powerset — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:44:00 GMT

Powerset officially became a part of Microsoft a little over a month ago and we’ve already completed our first few integration projects: Freebase Answers, improved captions for Wikipedia results, and new related searches using our Factz engine .

These projects were meant to be achievable in 30 days and act as a first collaboration between the Live Search and Powerset teams. We have plans for deeper integration in the future, but these projects gave us an opportunity to get to know our colleagues up in Redmond and drive greater understanding of our respective technologies. All of these projects are currently being “flighted” on Live Search, which means that they are being shown only to a small percentage of users (if you get one, consider yourself lucky!). Once we’ve gotten data back from the tests, we’ll plan next steps and decide what features will eventually roll into the product.

The first project was to expand the number of queries for which Live Search shows Answers. Queries like San Francisco weather, MSFT, and Banff national park already produce answers. Also, many celebrities from abba to frank zappa and even bloggers from seth godin to leo laporte show up with xRank biographies. But, many topical queries do not show Answers today such as musicians, albums, films, etc. For this experiment, we selected some of these categories and will return a topic summary with links, similar to the Freebase Answers we show in Powerset, using data from Freebase. Eventually, we hope to give Answers for even more topics.

The second project was to use Powerset’s semantic technology to generate improved captions for Wikipedia articles. Since Wikipedia articles show up in a large percentage of Live Search queries, it’s important that the captions are top notch. These changes are transparent to the end user, but we’ll be able to analyze the Powerset captions versus the Live Search captions to see which perform better.

The third project is also transparent. We used Powerset’s Factz extraction to generate a list of related searches for a set of queries.

We also started to use some of Live Search’s technology on the Powerset side. You’ll notice that we now have “related articles” on Powerset enhanced Wikipedia articles. We’re getting these directly from Live Search.

Powerset is excited that we’re already able to make improvements to Live Search. Expect more announcements in the coming months, both of Powerset’s technology integrated into Live Search and of enhancements to Powerset.com.

- Dr. Scott Prevost, Principal Development Manager, Powerset
- Dr. Hugh Williams, Partner Development Manager, Live Search