Semantic Search engine has been all the rage for the last 2-3 years. Everyone knows Google as the big daddy of keyword search engines and has heard of how Semantic Search Engine can potentially be the next big thing. Why? because it sounds sexy, because it sounds mysterious, and I think we are all interested in the next Google beater and what the next generation of search can offer.
Whilst various researches have shown that a third of searchers don’t find their search on their first attempt due to poor understanding of the features and relevant syntax of the search engine, semantic search engine claim to fix that problem by allow searchers to use natural language and not having to learn the various search syntax to zero in on what they are looking for, in another word, ask a question and get THE answer. Sounds promising, but does it work ?
So firstly, let’s have a look at the contenders? Hakia and Powerset are probably two of the most well known self claimed semantic search engines. Powerset is well known for fact that it was bought by Microsoft but it never got past searching Wikipedia articles only. Hakia on the other hand, is a true general semantic web search engine that has been around for a few years.
But is it any good ? More importantly what’s in it for everyday searchers like you and me ? To quote Hakia, here is what Semantic Search Engine can do for you:
“Semantic search technology enables accurate retrieval of information via concept/meaning match. It is very effective, and perhaps the only method, in application to credible and dynamic content. Because most of the credible and dynamic content are statistically flat (infertile) for popularity algorithms to work effectively beyond common queries. ”
To prove its point Hakia even puts various search phrase links on its homepage that do a head to head search comparison against Google. Here is one for a search for “longest strike in the history of railroadsâ€
For the above example where the search phrase is a fairly specific question, there is no question that Hakia :
(1) Seems to understand the essence of the question
(2) Returned more relevant results, and
(3) The summary provided is also spot on in terms of the question asked
I like their approach in inviting users to do a head to head comparison with Google search results. It shows that their technology has merit against the best in the business and they have nothing to hide.
Some of the other search comparison that Hakia invites you to do and seems to return better results include:
- Does insurance cover brain surgery?
- Do DOE and EPA have conflicts?
- Is there any remedy to tuberculosis?
After a while, you get the idea that Hakia is designed and tuned to understand and deconstruct questions and then return the relevant answer with highly optimised summary.
And I must say, it does a pretty good job in answering natural language based questions.
I can’t help it but tried the ultimate question of them all “What is the meaning of life†and here is what I got:
I gathered this question (and many others!) has been asked a few times before and the engine has prepared an even extensive response of it! More prove that it’s pretty serious in providing the best quality answer to various questions.
So what’s verdict ? if you know what you are doing, Google is sill superior and can certainly give you the answer to any question you have if you know how to turn your question into the right syntax and format that Google are optimised at processing.
For a straight search on a question you have, Hakia provides an interesting alternative that seems to work pretty well and might just give you some insights that you didn’t think of when you asked the question.
Honestly, you should at least try out the comparison searches and make up your own minds!
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Nice write up, Never heard of Hakia before..!