Microsoft might buy Powerset
Having failed to acquire Yahoo, Microsoft has now apparently set its sights on a new target, and is rumored to be eying a $100 million acquisition of powerset.com, a natural language-based search engine that is only usable on Wikipedia and Freebase.
One has to now wonder how much of a boost in the search market the acquisition will net them over time :), as we know that Google has been a bit dismissive about semantic search and it didn’t do much for Ask Jeeves either. Anyways, this could at the very least help Microsoft distinguish itself in the search space, but with all the hundreds of millions they’ve already spent beefing up their search engine perhaps their problem isn’t technological as much as it is a branding issue.
Andrew Link Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Looking in the future I think that Microsoft will absorb everything that they will be able to.
Purity Rings Said,
July 1, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Microsoft wants so bad to be Google. I personally think it will never happen. I guess we’ll see…
Enache V Said,
July 2, 2008 @ 1:39 am
I personally think that !Yahoo asking prices are inflated, considering that their search engine is not very used and neither special.
I think Microsoft shoot themselves in the foot by making their interest in !Yahoo so widely known, resulting in such of price increase.
I can’t help to wonder if this move from Microsoft it’s not only a storm in a glass of water, to stir thing a little.
Mike Johnston Said,
July 2, 2008 @ 8:22 am
I wonder what would lead them to want to buy powerset.com .
I’ve never even heard of them, what could the possibly gain from it?
Ren Said,
July 2, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
I think Microsoft is on a roll to get on top of Google.com but the fact remains that each have their own domain, and search domain is dominated by Google and no one can take that place, atleast for the next few years, Google guys are always a step ahead.
Mitch Argon Said,
July 2, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
MS has a long way to go. From my experience, everything they do in Search is either cumbersome or flat out doesn’t work.
MS has a lot of ‘blocking and tackling’ to do before an acquisition like this will make much difference for searchers or search marketing folks.
Bowtrol Cleanse Said,
July 3, 2008 @ 9:22 am
Microsoft is always the last one to the party technologically speaking. However, they always seem to make their stand by eating the last slice of pizza, drinking the last of the beer, and leaving with a good looking woman.
Frankly, this seems to be a party which they just aren’t welcome. Google has the market dominated and yahoo quick scrambles to pick up the scraps Google leaves behind. I track all the search traffic I receive from MSN and although I list just as high there as I do in Google and even higher than I do in Yahoo for most things I see 2 or 3 clicks from an MSN a month typically.
If they are going to compete they better get started that have a long way to go.
Search Engine Optimisation geek Said,
July 4, 2008 @ 4:28 am
My question is .
Is Google more evil then Microsoft
I vote 1 for Google
Drunken Dragon Said,
July 6, 2008 @ 11:51 am
I think both Microsoft and Google have a bad images. Both of them only wants to make more money, it sucks.
Tom@S Said,
July 10, 2008 @ 3:40 am
Microsoft and google is the same. Only google give you all for free and microsoft only sell goods.