Powerset is Booting Up to Microsoft – Microsoft Buying Spree Has Started June 26, 2008
Posted by John Furrier in Technology.Tags: microsoft, Powerset, Venturebeat
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As speculated here at Furrier.org first and confirmed by my sources Microsoft left the Yahoo bedroom with the intention of buying up the farm to get a foothold in search. Well folks… game is back on. Matt Marshall is reporting that Microsoft is paying north of $100 million for Powerset. .
Matt’s article is well researched and written. It’s good in depth reporting so I won’t rechew on his stuff. Go there it’s worth a read.
Here is my take.
I knew Powerset was in discussion with Microsoft but I had no idea that this would go through this fast. Powerset is not even ready for prime time according to sources close to the company. The product barely works at scale and I’ve heard of some linguistic issues on their approach.
What does this mean?
This is all about Microsoft buying up the talent in search anything. Smart move. i think so. Overpriced: Yes. But if you think about the talent and the team it is justified.
Semantic search is a moving train. Cracking the code goes way beyond just software advances. Semantic search now intersects data, software, infrastructure, services, and devices. Wait that sounds like Unified Communications.
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