New search site is hit and miss so far

The biggest search story of the recent week was the launch of Powerset. This “natural language” search site is supposed to offer ways to improve the search of everyday expressions.

In its initial release, it’s only doing one thing: searching inside the massive, democratically edited Wikipedia online encyclopedia. The reviews so far are mixed.

If you ever use Wikipedia, you know it can be a jumble. Powerset wants to help people find things more simply inside Wikipedia. We tried “How many acres in a hectare?”

In a highlighted line from the Wikipedia entry “acre” was this answer: An acre is approximately 40 percent of a hectare.

Many other users have grumbled. Search “how many teams are in major league baseball?” and you won’t get the answer. If you go the MLB entry in Wikipedia, it’s right there, front and center: 30 teams.

Smart Search is a regular feature of .TXT.