Microsoft on Tuesday announced it is buying Powerset, a firm that specializes in interpreting the intent of people’s Internet searches instead of matching specific words they use.
Microsoft said it plans to use Powerset technology to enhance its free Live Search service that has been mired in third place behind Google and Yahoo in the lucrative Internet search-related advertising arena.
Powerset’s “semantic search” merges linguistics with engineering in a software platform to figure out what people are seeking based on questions or phrases.
That compares with standard search engines, which respond to individual words in the search query.
“We know today that roughly a third of searches don’t get answered on the first search and first click,” Microsoft senior vice president of search, portal and advertising Satya Nadella said in an online posting.
“Search engines don’t understand today that ‘shrub’ and ‘tree’ are similar concepts. We don’t understand that ‘cancer’ sometimes refers to a disease and sometimes refers to a horoscope and when a query or a Web page refers to which,” Nadella said.
Powerset recently launched a platform to better track down articles in popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia using natural language context.
“Because our goals around improving search align so well, Powerset has decided to team up with Microsoft,” the firm said in a blog posting about the deal.
“We believe that this is the fastest way to bring our technology to market at a large scale,” the posting said.
Powerset will continue to operate from its offices in San Francisco, where the privately held startup was founded in 2005.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes as Microsoft tries to heighten its online appeal in order to better challenge reigning Internet search and advertising king Google.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary