Comments for Taking the Bridge

Comment on Powerset should Sell by ☆ Powerset.com Vs Ask.com ( Ask wins big in our test searches )

☆ Powerset.com Vs Ask.com ( Ask wins big in our test searches ) — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:02:10 +0000

[…] a lot of news recently about if Powerset should sell, or play David and Goliath with Google. I vote sell. The concept is good, but they are more of an Ask competitor than a Google competitor, and we know […]

Comment on Powerset should Sell by Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:25:33 +0000

Interesting article and well-thought out. A couple of points, however. First, parsing sentences isn’t as easy as you’d think. Just finding the subject, verb, and object in a sentence can be a real task. Second, Powerset’s technology gracefully degrades: we parse more complicated (on incomprehensible) sentences as keywords. Obviously, better written text will be easier to parse, but that’s the “cream” that will rise to the top. And, trust me, Wikipedia has plenty of bad/tough/poorly written sentences to parse =)

Finally, when we launch and you can see the technology in action, note that we try to add value across the query spectrum, even to keyword queries. You’ll see what I mean soon.

-mark, Powerset Product Manager

Comment on Three Reasons Not To Use Disqus by tedd

tedd — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:35:36 +0000

Brandon,

You should check out sezwho — sezwho provides added functionalty by augmenting your comment system not replacing it.

tedd@sezwho.com

Comment on Search Results that are Right, not Bombed, I am not the Greatest Living American Despite what Google Says by Greatest Living American Brandon Wirtz compared to Webby Winner Stephen Colbert

Greatest Living American Brandon Wirtz compared to Webby Winner Stephen Colbert — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:48:57 +0000

[…] last year. Brandon wrote “Brandon Wirtz is the Greatest Living American 1 Year Later” a response to the winner of popularity Stephen Colbert. A fine read and accomplishes why Brandon is the […]

Comment on Sprint’s Xohm disadvantage in WiMax race by Dan Jones

Dan Jones — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:40:53 +0000

Nice take on the situation, particularly now that the idea of muni mesh networks as cheap wireless broadband seems to be largely discredited.

Dan Jones
Site Editor, Unstrung

Comment on Keyword Search Death Knell Sounds by Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:31:25 +0000

A knoll is a hill. A knell is the sound a bell makes.

Comment on Wikia.com vs. Stumpedia.com vs. Mahalo.com vs. ISayHello.com by Brandon Wirtz

Brandon Wirtz — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:07:40 +0000

We both know that Google trends are fleeting at best but that they make for a good ROI because often you can capture traffic for a few hours or days, or like I did with Zoey Zane you get $30k in ad revenue over a month on a 250 word post with a picture… but one thing I noticed is that while you do cover Google Trends well, you have to enter them really close to the way they appear on the trends list. If you pick somthing from the related trends list you don’t often return a result.

Also when Mispellings hit the trends list you create results for the mispellings. Rather than mapping the mispellings to a result which actually maps to the correct spelling. This is be cause you are relying on Google for your traffic, not because you actually want to see people find what they are looking for.

I think that is the difference between your approach and mine that is most obvious. I am trying to create a Search Engine with hints and pointers so an amateur can find good results quickly. You are trying to build a Content Engine which captures search from other people’s search engines (Google).

I’d be lying if I said I don’t expect that north of 50% of my traffic will originate from Google, but my goal is to keep my Page Views per Visitor to 2 or better. The person comes to my site from a generic search. Sees a refinement they like better and leaves through a page returned through that refined result.

Comment on Wikia.com vs. Stumpedia.com vs. Mahalo.com vs. ISayHello.com by Jason

Jason — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:41:10 +0000

thanks for taking the time to use the product.

I’d suggest doing the top searches on Google Trends one day as well as the top 100 searches overall.

I’m hoping we would do well!

Also, for bonus points put a non-tech savvy user in front of a mahalo page they are interested in (i.e. ask them their favorite tv show, actor, car, movie, food, etc). If you do five pages they like you’ll see something amazing happen.

best j

Comment on Call in the Robots, no more outsourcing, I’m looking at automation by Jason

Jason — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:31:54 +0000

I think in order to compete with the folks out there (not just us) you’re going to have to invest $10-25 per page and take a 36 month view on breaking even on the page. You’re also going to need to do it for like 2-3 years… but I applaud your insight into the business.

best jason

Comment on An Open Letter to Spock.com by Dave Myers

Dave Myers — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:23:33 +0000

I would like to comment on one very specific aspect of this post: the premise that people SHOULD have total control over their online profiles/reputation.

I’m of the opinion that just as in “real life” where people can only influence their reputation, this same convention should exist online. If people search engines, social networks, and the like solely relied on individuals to publish and update their information, the Web would be full of sparse, stagnant, and mostly inaccurate profiles of people. And come to think of it, that’s pretty much how things are now.

Whether or not companies like Spock can legally exist I have no idea, but I strongly believe they SHOULD exist to keep us all accountable and nimble.