Big Bucks to NetBase for Semantic Search
April 13, 2010
Semantic search continues to fire probes into the information sector. The most recent laser flash was the $9 million that charged the batteries of NetBase. I read “Semantic Search Startup NetBase Gets $9 Million” and learned:
With the new cash, NetBase will have now raised $18 million since its start in 2005. The funding comes from Altos Ventures and Thomvest Ventures. Cash will be used to “aggressively develop and serve new markets.” NetBase says it will build out its sales, marketing, business development and product management functions.
Interest in semantic search continues to percolate. The idea is that indexing words is often not enough. In order to go beyond key word indexing, semantic search innovators employs a broad range of techniques. These methods can degrade into marketing buzz. Casual observers of search hear “natural language processing” and “entity extraction” and leap to the conclusion that smart software can understand text.
Well, sort of. But the point is that most people who have used search engines for information know that a key word can generate information wide of the mar. One example is the use of the word “terminal” in a query. If you are looking for a bus station and get hits to an untreatable cancer, you realize that the word “terminal” has insufficient specificity to get you what you want. On the other hand, if you enter five or six key words, you may get a handful of hits but these may be too specific.
The fix is to assemble a number of methods to make fuzzy boundaries sharper and make too sharp boundaries fuzzier. The idea is to create a recipe that yields results that are just right. Google has some formidable intellects working on the semantic challenges. A Paul Allen start up Evri, bought the high profile Radar Networks, to beef up its semantic offerings. Most search vendors assert that their systems use semantic technology.
NetBase describes its approach as delivering the “next generation of search.” The company says:
We are the insight discovery company. Founded by innovators Jonathan Spier and Michael Osofsky, NetBase develops and markets a next-generation semantic technology that reads and understands the English language. This technology is the basis for solutions that help our users answer complex questions faster, more accurately, and with greater confidence. And we do this at scale. NetBase finds and extracts the most relevant information from billions of public and private sources of online information. Our advanced technology combines with patent-pending lenses to provide context for search results and intelligently guide users to highly relevant answers.
The company’s technology “focus searches by organizing the patterns detected by our next-generation semantic technology in the context of a specific set of questions relevant to a specific discipline or audience of researchers.”
Hakia, another semantic player, has been successful in attracting investment as well. The challenge for any semantic vendor is to find a way to generate sufficient revenue to keep the investors in vacation homes and new BMWs. There is a race underway among a number of interesting companies with semantic solutions. Looming over the entire sector are giants like Google and Microsoft which are keen to use semantics and any other context generating technology to give their services an advantage.
Which semantic vendor will break out and deliver a solution that delivers a hockey stick growth curve. Azure chip consultants praise most semantic technologies. But the proof is not PR. The proof is a sustainable base of revenue, sufficient revenue to continue technology investment, and the agility to dance around the very big players in the semantic game.
NetBase may be focusing on a vertical strategy and it will be interesting to watch the story unfold.
Stephen E Arnold, April 13, 2010
No one paid me to write this.
Comments
3 Responses to “Big Bucks to NetBase for Semantic Search”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
Stephen, thanks for the post. If you’re interested we’d be happy to give you a demo of our product ConsumerBase which is essentially a tool that companies can use to glean brand insights from the conversations that are happening online. Essentially because we read whole sentences we can develop deep insights into the emotional involvement of consumers with brands. ConsumerBase is built specifically for brands and our current customers are 5 of the top 10 CPG companies in the world. That includes Coke and P&G and they have been helping us tune the product specifically for brand insights.
Feel free to follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/net_base and @karllong
You might also be interested in our API documentation that we just put on slideshare this weekend.
http://www.slideshare.net/netbase/netbase-api-presentation
Cheers.
Hi
I read in your blog.Good thinking in your topics.I love it.
Olivia
………………………………….
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your post. I found it while testing our products 🙂
Michael