<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>AllThingsD &#187; Powerset</title>
	<atom:link href="http://allthingsd.com/tag/powerset/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://allthingsd.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 26 May 2012 19:52:25 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2</generator>
<atom:link rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com"/><image>
		  <url>http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg</url>
		  <title>All Things Digital</title>
		  <link>http://allthingsd.com/</link>
		  <width>144</width>
		  <height>22</height>
	</image>		<item>
		<title>Wavii Distills Information Overload Into Plot Points</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20120410/wavii-distills-information-overload-into-plot-points/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20120410/wavii-distills-information-overload-into-plot-points/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Liz Gannes</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adrian Aoun]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[funding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personalized news]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Semantic Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[start-ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wavii]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allthingsd.com/?p=195169</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wavii tonight opens to the public an ambitious Web site and iPhone app with personalized news feeds of what's going on in the world.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://wavii.com/">Wavii</a> tonight opens to the public an ambitious Web site and iPhone app with personalized news feeds of what&#8217;s going on in the world.</p>
<p>After users specify what topics and sources they are interested in, Wavii crawls the Web for stories, tweets and other fresh information about those topics. It condenses those into headlines and topic sentences that users can scan through and click to learn more.</p>
<p>So, rather than a site like Twitter or an RSS reader, where users receive information from a designated list of people and sources and scan through it in chronological order, Wavii does the algorithmic editorial work on each user&#8217;s behalf.</p>
<p>The site identifies newsworthy items by looking at the authority of the source, how widely and quickly stories are spreading, the strength of the language used (if there is hedging, Wavii can flag an item as a rumor) and other factors.</p>
<p><a href="http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/04/Wavii-desktop-2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-Hero wp-image-195196" title="Wavii desktop 2" src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/04/Wavii-desktop-2-640x460.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="460" /></a></p>
<p>CEO Adrian Aoun compares Wavii&#8217;s story summaries to Facebook&#8217;s structured status updates &#8212; for instance, when a user checks into a specific location or announces they are in a relationship with someone. When information is brought down to those key plot points, it&#8217;s easy to consume a lot of it. And like Facebook&#8217;s new Timeline apps, Wavii wants to compile graphical summaries of these similar news stories.</p>
<p>So, a Wavii item about a tech acquisition might automatically feature a chart of other recent deals; a story about a starlet arrested for drunk driving would have a list of all the other celebs with DUIs, Aoun said. But not all of that is built yet.</p>
<p>Wavii is the latest hopeful addition to a long line of semantic Web start-ups like Powerset and Twine that didn&#8217;t meet the high expectations set for them. But Wavii is different and better than the rest, according to Aoun, because it&#8217;s a big-data company rather than a natural-language processing company.</p>
<p>Beyond that distinction &#8212; which I think some might quibble with &#8212; I think the biggest hurdle facing Wavii is that it&#8217;s setting itself up as a destination site with its own social network. Wavii users share their interests publicly, they can see which other people have clicked on an article, and they can start Wavii-specific comment threads.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve checked out lots of smart and well-designed personalized news sites and apps, but I can think of very few that I&#8217;ve visited on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Wavii was started in 2009, but this is the first time it has opened up to the public. The Seattle-based company has 25 employees and is backed by SV Angel, Felicis Ventures, Kapor Capital, CrunchFund, Dave Morin, Shawn Fanning, Keith Rabois, Joshua Schachter, Paul Buchheit, Rick Marini and Max Levchin.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20120410/wavii-distills-information-overload-into-plot-points/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Former Powerset CEO Leaves Microsoft After Natural Language Job Search</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110907/former-powerset-ceo-leaves-microsoft-after-natural-language-job-search/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110907/former-powerset-ceo-leaves-microsoft-after-natural-language-job-search/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barney Pell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linda Zecher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[natural language search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Simon Witts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allthingsd.com/?p=117978</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another departure at Microsoft.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/09/barneypell.png"><img src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/09/barneypell.png" alt="" title="barneypell" width="558" height="231" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-117987" /></a>Barney Pell, Microsoft&#8217;s Chief Architect for Local Search, has left the company for a new gig in the venture capital world. &#8220;Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/barneyp/status/111256349899374592">Pell said in a tweet earlier this week</a>. &#8220;I&#8217;m now back to full-time angel investor and parallel entrepreneur!&#8221;</p>
<p>Pell, who joined Microsoft in 2008 &#8212; when <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20080701/msft-powerset/">it acquired Powerset, his natural language search start-up</a> &#8212; spent the past three years leading its effort to add a better understanding of the intent and meaning behind words in searches and Web pages. </p>
<p>And now he&#8217;s moved on, becoming another name on a growing list of managerial departures from Microsoft that includes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsofts-enterprise-sales-chief-simon-witts-is-leaving-2011-8">Simon Witts, head of the company&#8217;s enterprise and partner group</a>, and Linda Zecher, its coprorate VP of the worldwide public sector.</p>
<p>Notably, all three defections occured in the last month. What&#8217;s going on? That&#8217;s tough to say, though <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/the-microsoft-revolving-door-former-powerset-ceo-has-left-the-building/10553">ZDnet&#8217;s Mary Jo Foley has an interesting theory</a>: Windows Division boss Steve Sinofsky&#8217;s growing influence on Microsoft&#8217;s management processes, and a culture that is beginning to favor specialists over generalists.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20110907/former-powerset-ceo-leaves-microsoft-after-natural-language-job-search/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&quot;Beyond the Search Box&quot;: The White Pleather Honeypot Smackdown</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110201/beyond-the-search-box-the-white-pleather-honeypot-smackdown/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110201/beyond-the-search-box-the-white-pleather-honeypot-smackdown/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:53:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1970s]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[algorithm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amit Singhal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AOL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blekko]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BoomTown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chair]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cheating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[competitor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[copy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[couch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Danny Sullivan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egg-shaped]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[engine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entrepreneur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[event]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Farsight: Beyond the Search Box]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[geek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harry Shum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[honeypot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[host]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hosts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insult]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[investor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kara Swisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liveblogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mark Zuckerberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Cutts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[operation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peter Thiel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pleather]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rug]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engine Land]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semantic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[share]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Silicon Valley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smackdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smarky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[University of San Francisco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vivek Wadhwa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[white]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Who Will Win the Spam Wars?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Winklevii]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=40083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Perusing AOL's leaked damn-the-journalism-full-speed-ahead business plan, BoomTown was a little late to the Microsoft Bing event this morning called "Farsight: Beyond the Search Box."

But things had certainly been cooking with gas when I walked into the meeting room at the University of San Francisco, including allegations of cheating, honeypot stings and a whole lot of insulting of the hosts.

Schweeet!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2011/02/winnie_the_pooh.jpeg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2011/02/winnie_the_pooh-275x279.jpg" alt="" title="winnie_the_pooh" width="275" height="279" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-40085" /></a></p>
<p>Perusing AOL&#8217;s leaked damn-the-journalism-full-speed-ahead business plan, BoomTown was a little late to the Microsoft Bing event this morning called <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110201/microsoft-and-the-big-thinking-heads-at-farsight-2011-beyond-the-search-box/">&#8220;Farsight: Beyond the Search Box.&#8221;</a></p>
<p>But things had certainly been cooking with gas when I walked into the meeting room at the University of San Francisco, which the organizers had decked out in white nubby rugs, white pleather couches and those white egg-shaped chairs found only in 1970s decor.</p>
<p><em>Schweeet!</em></p>
<p>First up was well-known investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, poo-poohing Microsoft&#8217;s prospects of ever making money in search.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult to produce a new search company,&#8221; said Thiel, noting that even with a growing market share it&#8217;s curtains for Bing, given the huge fixed costs. &#8220;As far as I can tell, it&#8217;s still not breaking even.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Ouch!</em></p>
<p>By the way, Thiel sold semantic search engine Powerset to Microsoft for upward of $100 million in 2008 to help it, you know, get ahead in search.</p>
<p>Way to insult your money-bearing hosts!</p>
<p>Then, moderator Vivek Wadhwa harangued the panelists from Google, Microsoft and Blekko in the session &#8220;Who Will Win the Spam Wars?&#8221;</p>
<p>And they say I&#8217;m a snarky moderator! Wadhwa is snarktastic!</p>
<p>Wadhwa did not like any of it&#8211;not crappy content sites that sully Web search, not the efforts the companies were making to fix things, not the vision the trio had of the future.</p>
<p>And, by the way, Microsoft was not ever going to make money off all the company&#8217;s efforts.</p>
<p>Way to insult your hosts! I like this event!</p>
<p>Of course, what everyone was interested in was a smackdown between Google and Microsoft, given that the search giant accused the software giant of stealing its results today.</p>
<p>In an excellent, if exhaustive, <a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914">post by Search Engine Land&#8217;s Danny Sullivan</a>, Google said Bing was cheating by lifting its search results, which Google said it had proved via a &#8220;honeypot&#8221; sting operation.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve spent my career in pursuit of a good search engine,” Google&#8217;s Amit Singhal told Search Engine Land. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got no problem with a competitor developing an innovative algorithm. But copying is not innovation, in my book.&#8221;</p>
<p>The very presence of the word &#8220;honeypot&#8221; in any story about search algorithms is superb, in <em>my</em> book, even though this &#8220;controversy&#8221; is pretty much a he-said-he-said geek-off.</p>
<p>Google&#8217;s Matt Cutts kept up the cheater pressure at the Bing event, in a short debate with Microsoft&#8217;s Harry Shum, who was not having any of it.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not like we actually copy anything,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Translation: <em>Actually</em>, we do borrow, just like Facebook&#8217;s Mark Zuckerberg did to the Winklevii, resulting in a social networking behemoth that will soon take over all search and make this whole debate moot.</p>
<p>Microsoft is rubber, Google is glue. And Facebook, which was not present at the search event, is the <em>real</em> sticky honeypot.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20110201/beyond-the-search-box-the-white-pleather-honeypot-smackdown/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Exclusive: Seeking Better Search Results, eBay Finds Experts at Bing and Facebook</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110131/exclusive-seeking-better-search-results-ebay-finds-experts-at-bing-and-facebook/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110131/exclusive-seeking-better-search-results-ebay-finds-experts-at-bing-and-facebook/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tricia Duryee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arrivals departures feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best Match]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dennis DeCoste]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[e-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eBay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eMoney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hires]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Industry Moves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inventory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[machine-learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[merchants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PayPal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retailers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Brody]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scientists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Prevost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tricia Duryee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=2159</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[EBay has hired two search experts away from Facebook and Microsoft Bing as it prepares to roll out new features on its site, we have learned.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>EBay has hired two search experts away from Facebook and Microsoft Bing as it prepares to roll out new features on its site, we have learned.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2160" title="atdebaypaypal" src="http://emoney.allthingsd.com/files/2011/01/atdebaypaypal-275x154.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="154" />The company has confirmed the appointments of Scott Prevost to the position of VP of product management on search and Dennis DeCoste to the position of director of research, where he will manage such technical topics as data mining and machine learning.</p>
<p>Prevost will start immediately. DeCoste is a couple of weeks into his new job.</p>
<p>The two hires will focus on delivering changes to the e-commerce site&#8217;s homegrown search engine, by better matching items in its inventory based on a consumer&#8217;s search terms or interests.</p>
<p>The company is now working on the next-generation of search, <a href="http://labs.ebay.com/erlresearchfocus.html#search">according to the company&#8217;s research labs</a>, which lists both &#8220;search&#8221; and &#8220;machine learning&#8221; as two of its top priorities. Recently, eBay rolled out the ability to sort by &#8220;Best Match,&#8221; and will soon be launching other versions on eBay.com. &#8220;Through great strides we&#8217;ve made in applying machine learning to our search engine, search results will continue to become more relevant with each use,&#8221; says a labs post.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2167" title="ebay_bestmatch" src="http://emoney.allthingsd.com/files/2011/01/ebay_bestmatch-275x151.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="151" />Previously, Prevost was the principal development manager at Bing, where he led a team of developers who were responsible for a bringing a variety of Bing features to market, including complex stuff like adding &#8220;captions and summaries to search results, reference answers and query processing using natural language techniques,&#8221; <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-prevost/1/b26/22b">according to Prevost&#8217;s LinkedIn profile</a>. Before that, he served as the general manger and director of product for Powerset, which Microsoft acquired in 2008.</p>
<p>Before joining eBay, DeCoste was a research scientist at Facebook, where he worked to improve a number of products, including ad matching, search ranking, link recommendation and spam detection. Prior to that, he was a principal scientist at Microsoft and a director of research at Yahoo Research, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1009738&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=CNgA&amp;locale=en_US&amp;srchid=577c3e19-d754-4c8e-aca8-463cd24cd611-0&amp;srchindex=3&amp;srchtotal=4&amp;pvs=ps&amp;pohelp=&amp;goback=.fps_*1_Dennis_Decoste_*1_*1_*1_*1_*51_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_true_G,N,CC,I,PC,ED,L,FG,TE,FA,SE,P,CS,F,DR_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2">according to his profile on LinkedIn</a>.</p>
<p>We also reported exclusively today that <a href="http://emoney.allthingsd.com/20110131/paypal-hires-vp-of-global-design-from-apple/">eBay&#8217;s PayPal subsidiary has hired Sarah Brody</a>, formerly at Apple, to lead Global Design.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20110131/exclusive-seeking-better-search-results-ebay-finds-experts-at-bing-and-facebook/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Salesforce Buys Small Contact Management Start-Up Etacts</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20101221/salesforce-buys-small-contact-management-startup-etacts/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20101221/salesforce-buys-small-contact-management-startup-etacts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:59:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Liz Gannes</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[activity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ashton Kutcher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barney Pell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contacts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[del.icio.us]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Duke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eric Hahn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Etacts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Evan Beard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[funding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gmail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heroku]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hot or Not]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Howie Liu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IMAP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inventures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jawed Karim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Young]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joshua Schachter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liz Gannes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lorenzo Thione]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NetworkEffect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plug-ins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rapportive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Conway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salesforce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sign-ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SV Angels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[user]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Y-Combinator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[YouTube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=1526</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Salesforce has bought Etacts, the contacts management tool, according to a source familiar with the matter. Etacts informed users today that it will shut down as of January 31 in order to "pursue other opportunities."]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Salesforce has bought <a href="https://etacts.com/">Etacts</a>, maker of a contacts management tool, according to a source familiar with the matter. Etacts informed users today that it will shut down as of January 31 in order to &#8220;pursue other opportunities.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/Etacts.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1532" title="Etacts" src="http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/Etacts-275x157.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="157" /></a>Etacts, which participated in the <a href="http://ycombinator.com/">Y Combinator</a> program earlier this year, offered a free Web app and plug-ins that helped Gmail and IMAP users manage their email relationships by showing information about their contacts&#8217; social Web activity and communication history.</p>
<p>The start-up, co-founded by recent Duke grads Howie Liu and Evan Beard, had raised $650,000 in funding from Ron Conway of SV Angels, Eric Hahn of Inventures Group, Jim Young from Hot or Not, Lorenzo Thione and Barney Pell from Powerset, Joshua Schachter from Delicious, and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. And I believe Ashton Kutcher was involved as well.</p>
<p>Etacts will no longer accept user sign-ups as of today and will delete all user data effective January 31, it said in an email sent to users.</p>
<p>Etacts&#8217;s product was quite similar to that of another Y Combinator company, <a href="http://rapportive.com/">Rapportive</a>. Salesforce also just bought another YC company this month, <a href="http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/20101208/salesforce-acquires-hosted-apps-platform-heroku/">Heroku</a>, for $212 million in cash.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20101221/salesforce-buys-small-contact-management-startup-etacts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>As Microsoft Warily Eyes Google Buying Spree, Will It Jump In or Play the Regulatory Card?</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20091222/as-microsoft-warily-eyes-google-buying-spree-will-it-jump-in-or-play-the-regulatory-card/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20091222/as-microsoft-warily-eyes-google-buying-spree-will-it-jump-in-or-play-the-regulatory-card/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:57:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[acquisition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AdMob]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[antitrust]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BoomTown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D.C.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[financial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Greenfield Online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kara Swisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[local]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MSN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[portal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[publisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regulatory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semantic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Silicon Valley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start-up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[survey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[valuation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yelp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=22095</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With Google in the market for pretty much, well, everything, in the Web 2.0 space of late--using its fat stock price and copious cash reserves--it stands to reason that Microsoft would be in the same market too.

But will the software giant enter the fray as a rival bidder to the search behemoth or will it seek battle on the regulatory battlefield?

In other words, if you don't bid, do you block?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Please see <a href="http://allthingsd.com/about/kara-swisher/ethics/">this disclosure</a> related to me and Google.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/12/lolcat_raisebid.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/12/lolcat_raisebid-250x239.jpg" alt="lolcat_raisebid" title="lolcat_raisebid" width="250" height="239" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22257" /></a></p>
<p>With Google in the market for pretty much, <em>well</em>, everything, in the Web 2.0 space of late&#8211;using its fat stock price and copious cash reserves&#8211;it stands to reason that Microsoft would be in the same market too.</p>
<p>But multiple sources close to the situation said the software giant was caught short when Google (GOOG) grabbed mobile advertising start-up AdMob recently with a <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091109/google-acquires-admob-for-750-million-in-stock-the-press-release">massive $750 million acquisition price</a>.</p>
<p>Microsoft (MSFT) execs were similarly surprised when news emerged late last week that the search giant was offering more than $500 million for local search site Yelp, and were scrambling to figure out the best response, because both their MSN portal and their new Bing search service <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091209/msn-strikes-another-local-deal-this-time-with-nbcu-and-heart">have been prominently emphasizing local recently</a>.</p>
<p>That <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091221/yelp-is-gone-for-now-but-google-has-plenty-of-fish-left-to-fry/">Google-Yelp deal seems to have gone off the rails</a> for now.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Yelp insiders, several sources said, had considered Microsoft the only realistic spoiler&#8211;with both an interest in and the means for making such a play&#8211;even as they have openly scoffed at the idea of ever selling to Microsoft over the hipper and more copacetic Google.</p>
<p>In any case, maybe Microsoft will rise to the occasion now, taking advantage of the Silicon Valley-style breakdown between Google and Yelp.</p>
<p>But if the company&#8217;s recent history is any guide, it could just sit with a similarly large pile of cash on the sidelines, mulling its options.</p>
<p>It has certainly been a long mull for Microsoft, with no major acquisition in the digital space since the summer of 2008, when it bought Greenfield Online, an online market research and survey firm, for $486 million, as well as paying $100 million for the semantic search engine Powerset.</p>
<p>Microsoft also paid an undisclosed amount for a small interactive online gaming company called BigPark in May.</p>
<p>Of course, there was the little matter of that famously failed $44 billion bid for Yahoo (YHOO) that might have made it a bit wary, which was preceded by its $240 million investment in Facebook in the fall of 2007 at a $15 billion valuation.</p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/12/faceoff.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/12/faceoff-212x300.jpg" alt="faceoff" title="faceoff" width="212" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-22263" /></a></p>
<p>But for the most part, Microsoft has been focusing on making its own product more innovative and competitive recently, especially with its <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091215/microsofts-bing-app-debuts-on-iphone-so-whens-the-android-version-coming">laudable effort with Bing</a>, which has seen small but promising results.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s most certain is that if <a href="http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091218/google-wants-to-gulp-yelp-as-part-of-a-1-5-billion-shopping-spree/">Google keeps up its acquisition spree</a>, there is certain to be a faceoff in Washington, D.C., with Microsoft more likely to try to quash Google&#8217;s recent series of aggressive moves by making a regulatory stink.</p>
<p>The company did so rather effectively after Google bought DoubleClick, delaying the closing of the deal significantly and engendering the ire of top Google execs, who have not forgotten Microsoft&#8217;s sharp-elbowed effort.</p>
<p>They might not have to forget it, because it appears that it&#8217;s not going to stop, according to some who have been briefed on Microsoft&#8217;s thinking.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notion being put forth is that Google is bidding an &#8216;antitrust&#8217; premium on these properties, outbidding everyone else, so Microsoft is the only other possibility,&#8221; said one source. &#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt Microsoft will argue that if Google wins at this game, it should face significant regulatory hurdles.&#8221;</p>
<p>That kind of government review is what has <a href="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/tag/admob-monopoly/?mod=ATD_search">already happened with AdMob</a>.</p>
<p>And with <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091203/boomtown-decodes-google-ceo-schmidts-shut-up-you-whiny-news-folk-op-ed-so-you-dont-have-to">Google in the crosshairs of publishers</a> over a variety of content issues&#8211;with Microsoft putting itself out as a white knight to some media giants&#8211;expect more of the same going forward.</p>
<p>In other words, if you don&#8217;t bid, you block.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20091222/as-microsoft-warily-eyes-google-buying-spree-will-it-jump-in-or-play-the-regulatory-card/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Bing!</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-steve-ballmer/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-steve-ballmer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2009 15:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conferences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D7]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Academy Awards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ask]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best Match]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bing Feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carol Bartz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cashback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comScore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[copyright]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D: All Things Digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Encarta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GOOG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Room]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hilton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Instant Answer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jill Sobule]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[metrics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MSFT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[natural language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[netbook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Office]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oscar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[R&D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recession]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SCOR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[share]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smartphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Ballmer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Ballmer Session]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[talent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walt Mossberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows 7]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows 7 Feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yahoo-microsoft-feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yusuf Mehdi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zune]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=238</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the software giant's relaunch of its search offering, dubbed Bing, onstage at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference. Bing is Microsoft's biggest and priciest attempt yet to catch archrival Google and Yahoo in the search business. It is a market where the typically dominant Microsoft is a mouse in comparison. But, no surprise, that did not stop Ballmer from doing some roaring about Bing.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright photo" src="http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/548502947_t7mYM-S.jpg" alt="Steve Ballmer at D7" width="250" height="167" /></p>
<p>&#8220;Search and advertising, we are a small share&#8230;.It&#8217;s all about Google. They have share, we don’t have share.&#8221; <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/msft/download/transcripts/fy09/StrategicUpdate_Ballmer_Liddell_022409.doc">Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that back in February</a>, and according to <a href="http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/5/comScore_Releases_April_2009_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings">the latest metrics from comScore</a> (SCOR), it&#8217;s as true today as it was then. Google (GOOG) grew its share of the search market once again in April, and once again, Microsoft (MSFT) did not. The search sovereign’s share rose to 64.2 percent in April from 63.7 percent in March and 61.6 percent from a year ago, according to new data from comScore. Its April query volume grew 45.5 percent, the fastest growth rate since October 2007. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s market share for the month topped out at 8.2 percent, down from 8.3 percent in March and 9.1 percent a year ago.</p>
<p><em>They have share, we don’t have share.</em> Truer words. How much longer will Ballmer have to utter them? We may find out today when <a href="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090526/my-bing-a-ling/">he debuts Microsoft&#8217;s newest search offering</a> from the <strong>D7</strong> stage.</p>
<p><span id="more-5508"></span></p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID=B6291873-95A2-4164-9006-F1D5589CCAD9&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/"name="microflashPlayer"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={B6291873-95A2-4164-9006-F1D5589CCAD9}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="640" height="360" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></object></p>
<h4 class="subhed">Live Blog</h4>
<ul>
<li>After another song from Jill Sobule and some introductory remarks, Walt welcomes Steve Ballmer to the stage. He&#8217;s drinking a massive iced-coffee, as if he really needs the caffeine &#8230;</li>
<li>Walt kicks things off with a question about the souring economy. Ballmer&#8217;s opinion of it is apparently more sober than most. Ballmer says this is a &#8220;different recession. A recession implies that you sort of go down and go up. In this case, I think this is money that&#8217;s just got to come out of the economy&#8230;.We&#8217;re really resetting the economy. Maybe we should think of today as normal and yesterday as the bluebird.&#8221; So how long will this continue, asks Walt. Ballmer says to think things will return to the good old days quickly is naive&#8230;.“Is this a 50-year phenomenon? I don&#8217;t think so. But it&#8217;s not going to be over in three months, either.&#8221;</li>
<li>So how does this affect your business? Ballmer says Microsoft (MSFT) is doing a lot of soul-searching and flattening out its business and cost base. &#8220;We&#8217;re shaking up the future product investment stream.&#8221; That said, he notes that the company continues to invest aggressively in R&amp;D. &#8220;We&#8217;re investing in areas where there&#8217;s room for improvement.&#8221; Interesting euphemism.</li>
<li>Referring to poll data, Walt notes Microsoft&#8217;s paltry share of the search market. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of distance between you and Google,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Is search the most important thing to you as CEO or are you more concerned with Windows, etc.?&#8221;  &#8220;Our foremost concern is great people,&#8221; says Ballmer. &#8220;I spend more of my time on talent than trying to be &#8216;the search guy.&#8217;&#8221; He refers to Microsoft&#8217;s &#8220;seven big things.&#8221; What are they? &#8220;I&#8217;ve got seven children, I love,&#8221; says Ballmer, referring to Microsoft&#8217;s various businesses. &#8220;Look, we&#8217;re obviously where we are in search and we want to do better&#8230;.We&#8217;re hoping to be one of the companies that moves the industry forward&#8230;.The PC business continues to be big, we&#8217;re going through an economic reset, but there&#8217;s still vibrance there.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p><a title="Search engine wars" rel="lightbox" href="http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/552206546_XrrCj-L.jpg"><img class="aligncenter photo" src="http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/552206546_XrrCj-S.jpg" alt="Search engine wars" width="300" height="169" /></a></p>
<ul>
<li>Ha. Walt convinces Ballmer to refer to Google (GOOG) as Google, rather than &#8220;the market leader&#8221; as he has in years past. &#8220;Goo&#8230; Google,&#8221; he says.</li>
<li>Walt refers to another slide about search&#8211;how consumers choose search. He notes that most choose search out of habit and because of the brand. Given that, how can Microsoft compete? We&#8217;re about to find out apparently. But first a video&#8230;</li>
<li>It&#8217;s a &#8220;Star Trek&#8221; parody&#8211; &#8220;Search: the final frontier. To boldly go where someone had gone before.&#8221;  &#8220;A bold search for a new name.&#8221; Video runs over Microsoft&#8217;s chronic renaming of its search engine.</li>
<li>And there it is: the new name is &#8220;Bing.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p><img class="aligncenter photo" src="http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/548513149_F8DJk-S.jpg" alt="bing" width="250" height="167" /></p>
<ul>
<li>Referring to Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs, Ballmer jokes that the name might have been Boom&#8211;“We should have named it &#8216;BOOM!&#8217;&#8221;</li>
<li>Why Bing? Obviously we needed a better name, says Ballmer. &#8220;We needed a name that says this is all about search.&#8221; Ballmer doesn&#8217;t seem to really know. &#8220;I&#8217;m not the creative guy, here&#8230;short mattered&#8230;people like to &#8216;verb up&#8217;&#8230;works globally, doesn&#8217;t have negative connotations.&#8221; Walt: So everyone is going to walk out of here and say &#8220;Bing me&#8221;? Clearly that&#8217;s Ballmer&#8217;s hope. &#8220;This is a very important step&#8230;it&#8217;s not a substitute for innovation, but we need to build brand equity in addition to technology equity.&#8221;</li>
<li>Was securing the trademark problematic? Ballmer says there were a few challenges. Bing Crosby, apparently, was not an issue. In any case, Ballmer seems to enjoy saying the word of his new search service. Maybe Microsoft should consider a new name for Zune. &#8220;Zing&#8221;?</li>
<li>Ballmer brings out Yusuf Mehdi to demo Bing. It&#8217;s going live on June 3. From a UI perspective, it&#8217;s a box and a button format with screensaver-esque background. Demoing basic Web searches. Best Match denotes an official or definitive site&#8211;the site we know to be authoritative. Instant Answer&#8211;answers to obvious questions delivered along with search returns; a search for Oscars immediately returns a result for who won an Academy Award. A search for UPS (UPS) automatically returns a customer service number at the top of the page. Walt asks to search on &#8220;Microsoft.&#8221; Much laughter, but the search return does feature a customer service number.</li>
<li>Bing also returns real-time flight data. Handy. Mehdi notes that Bing includes the technology Microsoft acquired when it purchased Powerset. Using it to &#8220;understand&#8221; pages, mine data. Walt notes that returns from Encarta, Microsoft&#8217;s now-defunct encyclopedia, appear along with material from Wikipedia. &#8220;Encarta? What&#8217;s that?&#8221; he jokes. Ballmer chuckles: &#8220;Encarta is an encyclopedia&#8230;that is not getting much ongoing investment.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p><img class="aligncenter photo" src="http://d.smugmug.com/photos/548512971_fz2Hc-S.jpg" alt="Demoing bing" width="250" height="167" /></p>
<ul>
<li>Demoing media searches now. Video searches pull up a nice screen of thumbnails that play in the search pane when clicked. On to weather. Bing gives a full five-day forecast, as opposed to what Google offers&#8211;a single day, I think. Search for a city returns, weather, events, sports games, video mentions of the area.</li>
<li>On to shopping. A search for a Canon (CAJ) camera returns a hybrid search shopping page. Price comparisons, user reviews. Also, Cashback, which rewards people for purchases made through the site. Here&#8217;s a nice feature: Farecast. Flight search&#8211;issues a query across airlines by price, hops, etc. Also tracks flight pricing trends. Tells you if your fare is likely to go up.</li>
<li> Bing seems to be designed specifically to keep people on its search pages as opposed to sending them off to other sites. Is that what Microsoft is trying to do? Won&#8217;t this annoy content owners? Ballmer says no and adds that content deals are possible. &#8220;We&#8217;re not trying to get in the way of copyright holders,&#8221; he says. &#8220;If value should be redivided somehow between content providers, advertisers and search engines, let&#8217;s have that conversation&#8230;.We&#8217;re not trying to profit off of anyone else&#8217;s work.&#8221;</li>
<li>Recalling Ask&#8217;s big redesign and it&#8217;s subsequent rise and fall, Walt asks if the same thing might happen to Bing. &#8220;No,&#8221; says Ballmer. Bing is too tremendous a stride. It differentiates itself from Google. It might not appeal to everyone, but if it appeals to 20 percent of them, that&#8217;s a success. Ask wasn&#8217;t able to do that.</li>
<li>Ballmer: &#8220;Search has not been a dynamic category in terms of innovation.&#8221;</li>
<li>Not at Microsoft, anyway &#8230;</li>
</ul>
<p><img class="aligncenter photo" src="http://photos.allthingsd.com/photos/548513181_fvx4u-S.jpg" alt="Steve Ballmer" width="167" height="250" /></p>
<ul>
<li>Walt circles back and notes that Ask spent an enormous amount of money on a rebranding campaign that ultimately failed despite some good buzz. How much money is Microsoft dedicating to the Bing branding campaign? &#8220;Lots,&#8221; says Ballmer. &#8220;When I approved the budget, I gulped, and a gulp in a $60 billion company, well, that&#8217;s a big gulp.&#8221;</li>
<li>Walt asks Ballmer about the overhaul of Windows and how important it is in an era when we&#8217;re moving to cloud-based services and from PCs to netbooks and mobile devices. Ballmer seems puzzled by the question. Smartphones are PCs. Netbooks are PCS. &#8220;The Web is designed for the PC&#8230;.Most of these mobile apps are substituting for the fact that the original app wasn&#8217;t designed for the PC,&#8221; he says.</li>
<li>Walt refers to some survey data again. Notes that many consumers say they don&#8217;t plan to purchase a netbook in the near future. How do you interpret that? Ballmer: &#8220;I just think netbook is a funny brand&#8230;.What is a netbook? Is it defined by its operating system, its memory, its screen size? They&#8217;re really just PCs. I bet if you asked people if they planned to buy a portable computer you&#8217;d get a much better response&#8230;.It&#8217;s a little hard to know what the heck the difference is between the netbook and the PC.&#8221;</li>
<li>Walt: Windows 7 is on track? Ballmer: &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure what &#8216;track&#8217; it is, but whatever it is, it&#8217;s on it.&#8221;</li>
<li>On to the Q&amp;A. First question: How is Microsoft going to convince users to learn the new Windows 7 and Office UI? Ballmer says change is difficult. Notes that he hates whenever The Wall Street Journal changes its format. He says Microsoft&#8217;s internal testing has determined that the changes the company has made to the OS and Office suite are good ones that will be embraced. That said, there will always be some difficulties.</li>
<li>Questioner asks about natural-language search, wondering how Bing would deal with a search for a Hilton hotel in Paris, when there&#8217;s the possibility that it might return a list of results for Paris Hilton. He asks for a demo, but Ballmer declines. He can try it for himself on June 3.</li>
<li>Question about Microsoft&#8217;s efforts in the medical arena. Ballmer: &#8220;Health&#8217;s a tough business. People who make IT decisions in the medical industry don&#8217;t make them quickly.&#8221; That said, Microsoft is &#8220;full speed ahead&#8221; in the area.</li>
<li>How is Microsoft differentiating sponsored searches in Bing? Cashback is obviously differentiated, Ballmer says. Paid side is tougher though.</li>
<li>Final question from Walt: Does Bing mean that your interest in Yahoo (YHOO) is waning? Ballmer jokingly recites the standard bullet points.  &#8220;I think there&#8217;s a lot that can make sense in terms of a search partnership, not an acquisition,&#8221; he says in a monotone. &#8220;Whether such a thing will happen I don&#8217;t know.&#8221; Walt presses him further about a meeting between Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Ballmer jokes that the meeting was actually a note that Bartz left for him in the Green Room. According to Ballmer, it read: &#8220;The makeup couldn&#8217;t fix me if it tried.&#8221;</li>
<li>Quick update: we managed to get our hands on the actual note: It was left next to the makeup in the Green Room and reads:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote><p>Steve,</p>
<p>Forget it</p>
<p>Won&#8217;t help</p>
<p>Ha</p>
<p>Carol</p></blockquote>
<p><em><strong>A note about our coverage:</strong> This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as we were able. It was not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.</em></p>
<p><ul style="list-style:none;"><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082313-05401/548513163_fhjzV-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082256-05339/548513181_fvx4u-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-081030-05250/548502987_oHgTX-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="412" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-081512-05228/548502964_54SmA-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-081540-05298/548502958_p362V-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="412" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-081746-05316/548502947_t7mYM-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="412" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082455-05415/548513149_F8DJk-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082510-05419/548513126_bveEN-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082756-05345/548513102_oM5ca-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082106-05386/548513187_pYngL-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082027-05385/548513206_g4QQ6-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082834-05358/548513064_R7qej-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="412" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083115-05467/548513002_28ihY-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083440-05509/548512939_YbRb6-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083453-05514/548512918_899tj-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083438-05507/548512949_QXPD5-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083322-05491/548512971_fz2Hc-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083106-05462/548513027_L7ppi-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="414" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-083240-05480/548512989_rkHfj-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-082903-05373/548513041_jTnx3-L-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="412" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-085108-05520/548517475_4tP7Y-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-085527-05553/548517430_Fop9g-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/d7-20090528-085118-05522/548517451_EJHLk-XL-1.jpg" class="alignnone" width="413" height="620" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/D7-PSB-Poll-Slides-v1005/552206546_XrrCj-L.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="349" alt="" /></li><li><img src="http://d.smugmug.com/D7/Speaker-Sessions/Steve-Ballmer-CEO-of-Microsoft/D7-PSB-Poll-Slides-v1006/552206528_4b7Gi-L.jpg" class="alignnone" width="620" height="349" alt="" /></li></ul> </p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-interview-steve-ballmer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Sneak Peek Look at Microsoft&#039;s New Kumo: A Spidery Cloud? A Cloudy Spider?</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20090302/a-sneak-peek-look-at-microsofts-new-kumo/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20090302/a-sneak-peek-look-at-microsofts-new-kumo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:07:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Audi S8]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barney Pell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogosphere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BoomTown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bose Lifestyle 48]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japanese]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kara Swisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kumo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Live Search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[memo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[product]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Satya Nadella]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screenshot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spider]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen King]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taylor Swift]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[test]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=10555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are three screenshots of Microsoft's internal test of a new search product called Kumo.

The long expected upgrade to Live Search from Microsoft is being tested for a public rollout later this year.

Sources at Microsoft said the company has not yet decided whether it will keep the Kumo name, which sounds a little too much like that crazy dog from the Stephen King novel.

Maybe that's the point, at least related to Google. (Chomp!)

In Japanese, actually, Kumo has two definitions--cloud and spider.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/kumo.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/kumo-300x168.jpg" alt="kumo" title="kumo" width="300" height="168" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-10580" /></a></p>
<p>Here below are three screenshots of Microsoft&#8217;s internal test of a new search product called Kumo.</p>
<p>The long expected upgrade to the Live Search product from Microsoft (MSFT) is being tested for a public rollout later this year.</p>
<p>The blogosphere was a-twitter, literally, after a Twitter post by Powerset co-founder Barney Pell this past weekend, about a rebranding and updating of the search offering. (Microsoft acquired Powerset last year and Pell works on search strategy.)</p>
<p>Sources at Microsoft said the company has not yet decided whether it will keep the Kumo name, which sounds a little too much like that crazy dog from the Stephen King novel.</p>
<p>Maybe that&#8217;s the point, at least related to Google. (<em>Chomp!</em>)</p>
<p>In Japanese, actually, <a href="http://www.jp41.com/kanji/kumo.html">Kumo has two definitions</a>&#8211;cloud and spider.</p>
<p>Microsoft has been trying to catch up in the search game by spending big-time after it failed to acquire Yahoo (YHOO) last year.</p>
<p>And it still wants to do a search deal with Yahoo, in order to make a dent in the market dominance of Google (GOOG).</p>
<p>Until then, of course, Microsoft must innovate. And, so far, Kumo seems to be an interesting effort with a clean and spare look.</p>
<p>But what do you think? Let me know in the comments.</p>
<p>Also, here is the memo from Microsoft search head Satya Nadella about it, urging all company employees to try it out and send feedback:</p>
<blockquote class="memo"><p>From: Satya Nadella<br />
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 4:18 PM<br />
To: Microsoft&#8211;All Employees (QBDG)<br />
Subject: Announcement: Internal Search Test Experience</p>
<p>The Search team needs you. We’ve been working hard to improve our search service and want to share the progress we are making with you. We are launching a new test program called kumo.com for employees to try and provide feedback. Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days. Kumo is the codename we have chosen for the internal test.</p>
<p>In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40% of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46% of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don’t find what they need from search today.</p>
<p>We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you’ll see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions.</p>
<p>Your Next Search&#8230;</p>
<p>To get started, visit kumo.com or click one of the samples below to see how it’s possible to find the right results more easily:</p>
<p>· Audi S8<br />
· Taylor Swift<br />
. Bose Lifestyle 48</p>
<p>You can also set your search defaults to test site using the instructions here.</p>
<p>Your Feedback is Critical</p>
<p>As employees, you are some of our most informed users and our toughest critics, and we highly value your input and feedback to help us build a better service. You have been an important voice in our efforts, and the feedback you’ve sent us since the company meeting has been amazing.</p>
<p>When you visit kumo.com, at the bottom right corner of the each page you’ll see a feedback badge. We ask that each time you use the test site, click the feedback badge and take a moment to answer four quick and simple questions. Feel free to reach out to give us extra feedback directly on our blog and by mailing sfeed. For answers to common questions make sure to see our FAQ.</p>
<p>We are committed to rapid innovation and improvement. Please give the test site a try, rate the results and let us know what you think.</p>
<p>Satya</p></blockquote>
<p>Here are the three screenshots too (click on the images twice to make them larger):</p>
<p><strong>Taylor Swift</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile.gif"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-128x300.gif" alt="downloadedfile" title="downloadedfile" width="128" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium photo wp-image-10556" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Audi S8</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-1.gif"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-1-108x300.gif" alt="downloadedfile-1" title="downloadedfile-1" width="108" height="300" class="aligncenter photo size-medium wp-image-10557" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Bose Lifestyle 48</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-2.gif"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-2-119x300.gif" alt="downloadedfile-2" title="downloadedfile-2" width="119" height="300" class="aligncenter photo size-medium wp-image-10558" /></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20090302/a-sneak-peek-look-at-microsofts-new-kumo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>QOTD</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20080821/qotd-21/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20080821/qotd-21/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:51:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bill Gates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Paczkowski]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quoted]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Prevost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shorty]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=3632</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Bill has definitely not retired for us.&#8221; &#8211; Scott Prevost, general manager and product director at Powerset, the semantic search start-up Microsoft recently acquired, says reports of Chairman Bill Gates&#8217;s retirement have been greatly exaggerated.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Bill has definitely not retired for us.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8211; <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10020157-2.html?hhTest=1">Scott Prevost</a>, general manager and product director at Powerset, the semantic search start-up Microsoft recently acquired, says reports of Chairman Bill Gates&#8217;s retirement have been greatly exaggerated.</p></blockquote>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20080821/qotd-21/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Microsoft, Yahoo: One More Time!</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20080702/microsoft-yahoo-one-more-time/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20080702/microsoft-yahoo-one-more-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:00:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Add new tag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital Daily Live]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jerry Yang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Paczkowski]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News Corp.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Ballmer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Time Warner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whole language search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[ See post to watch video ]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><div class="video-wsj"><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={1644026601}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="320" height="240" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20080702/microsoft-yahoo-one-more-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Microsoft Reaffirms Lack of Commitment to Yahoo</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20080701/msft-powerset/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20080701/msft-powerset/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:05:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Paczkowski</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[acquisition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Paczkowski]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[natural language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Powerset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semantic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start-up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wikipedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yahoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2665</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jerry Yang and Co. say Microsoft was never committed to a whole-company acquisition of Yahoo. But if that’s the case, why is it that Microsoft seems entirely committed to a whole-company acquisition of another search company--Powerset?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/files/2008/07/powerset.jpg" alt="" title="powerset" width="350" height="155" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2666" /> Jerry Yang and Co. say  Microsoft (MSFT) <a href="http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080701/time-to-recalibrate-the-wayback-machine-mr-peabody/">was never committed to a whole-company acquisition</a> of Yahoo (YHOO). But if that&#8217;s the case, why is it that Microsoft seems entirely committed to a whole-company acquisition of another search company&#8211;Powerset?</p>
<p>This afternoon, <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/07/01/powerset-joins-live-search.aspx">Microsoft said it will acquire the search start-up</a> for a sum believed to be <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/01/confirmed-microsoft-buys-search-startup-powerset/">more than $100 million</a>.</p>
<p>Coming as it does in the aftermath of Microsoft&#8217;s failed effort to buy Yahoo, the acquisition is an interesting one. Powerset is no Yahoo. That said, it&#8217;s in some ways better.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.powerset.com/blog/articles/2008/07/01/microsoft-to-acquire-powerset">Powerset specializes in so-called &#8220;natural language&#8221; search</a>, which is meant to understand the intent and meaning behind the words in search queries&#8211;so that, for example, a search engine could understand the difference between a search for &#8220;yahoo&#8221; the exclamation, and &#8220;Yahoo&#8221; the search company Microsoft didn&#8217;t buy. Powerset searches the Web&#8211;well, at this point, just Wikipedia&#8211;semantically. And that&#8217;s a handy skill to have when your competing with Google (GOOG), which isn&#8217;t yet able to search the Web in that way.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2008/tc20080630_349921.htm">Said Harvard Business School professor Andrei Hagiu</a>, &#8220;Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition of Powerset makes perfect sense and is probably the best shot at a disruptive technology that might allow it to leapfrog Google.&#8221;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://allthingsd.com/20080701/msft-powerset/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

