Semantic Search with Hakia, NOT YET !!

Read/Write Web Reviewed a new search engine 'Hakia' that attempts to understand what you really want to search, instead of searching purely based on keywords.

Does it Understand the Meaning?

Does it understand the meaning at all is a big question and I am not quite convinced at all. But as a niche competitor to Google, it might get lots of eyeballs, though I bet, they may not frequent it, YET.

The first company we'll cover is Hakia, which is a "meaning-based" search engine startup getting a bit of buzz. It is a venture-backed, multi-national team company headquartered in New York - and curiously has former US senator Bill Bradley as a board member. It launched its beta in early November this year, but already ranks around 33K on Alexa - which is impressive. They are scheduled to go live in 2007.

Source: Hakia - First Meaning-based Search Engine

My Meaningful Search Queries to Find Meaning

I tried the following searches that are meaningful and useful to me. In all searches, Google has more relevant search results than Hakia. Here are the details. (click on snapshot to enlarge)

1. What is the best city in US to live in?

2. What is the best company to work for in US?

3. What is the best place to shop for Video Games this Christmas?

As you can see from the results, 'search with Meaning in Mind' is not there YET. I don't know if their search engine tunes itself based on user searches. But there is no sign yet that it understands what I am trying to search.

Comments

Ian Delaney said…
Good research. When I read the post, it reminded me instantly of AskJeeves.com circa 1999. Promised a lot in terms of natural language search; couldn't deliver.

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