Microsoft Strengthens Its Live Search With "Powerset"

Microsoft, the world's largest software company, announced Tuesday its intention to acquire Powerset Inc., an Internet search company, the latest in a string of attempts aimed at challenging search engine giant Google Inc. The software behemoth intends to add Powerset’s natural language search capabilities to their Live Search engine.

The most successful and influential software company, Microsoft has reached the San Francisco-based search start-up Powerset with an offer worth more than $100 million to acquire the company. However, the purchase price is not yet known.

“Powerset will join our core Search Relevance team, remaining intact in San Francisco. Powerset brings with it natural language technology that nicely complements other natural language processing technologies we have in Microsoft Research,” Satya Nadella, Senior Vice President, Search, Portal, and Advertising wrote in a blog posting on Live Search.

Powerset is the developer of “semantic search” technology that organizes data by meaning rather than by content. The technology contextualizes search queries to improve results.

Powerset that pioneers natural language technology, in May this year, launched its search engine that uses “natural language” to organize and search documents. Based on the patents licensed from PARC (formerly Xerox PARC) and Powerset’s proprietary research, Powerset claims the beta search engine initially will be confined to Wikipedia. The technology enables users reinvent the way they search and discover information from Wikipedia.

By using language rather than keywords, Powerset’s search technology offers powerful new capabilities, delivering query results based on meaning, rather than words, delivering valid answers and improving the search experience.

“Because our goals around improving search align so well, Powerset has decided to team up with Microsoft. We believe that this is the fastest way to bring our technology to market at a large scale,” product manager Mark Johnson wrote on Powerset’s blog. "Microsoft accelerates our ability to move Powerset to the entire web faster than anyone could have imagined."

Microsoft’s move comes on the heels of Redmond company’s failure to acquire the leading Internet giant Yahoo Inc. In an effort to catch up with Google in Web search, Microsoft has launched a buyout bid to acquire Internet media company Yahoo! Inc. that spent years trying and failing to catch up with Google in Web search and the lucrative market for ads linked to search results.

But, Yahoo repeatedly declined to accept the software mammoth’s proposal. Nearly three weeks ago, the Sunnyvale search company rebuffed a second Microsoft proposal to pay $9 billion in exchange for Yahoo's search business and a 16% equity stake in the company.

Microsoft asserts Powerset’s acquisition would give it a strong foothold in the Internet search market, and would likely help it meet Mountain View, California-based Google’s challenge, and take a monster slice of the online services market.