Hakia - Semantic search at its finest » MATEOSQUARED’S iSEARCH

When I initially went to Hakia I thought it was another lame search site, but then I looked around a little more and found that it works differently than most other search sites. The site launched in February 2007, and is focused more on the meaning of words versus its popularity. You can read how they index information on their technology page.

The basic promise is to bring search results by meaning match - similar to the human brain’s cognitive skills - rather than by the mere occurrence (or popularity) of search terms. hakia’s new technology is a radical departure from the conventional indexing approach, because indexing has severe limitations to handle full-scale semantic search.

It seems to give very relevant results, but the cool thing is the way the results are broken down. Instead of just a page of results they break them down into categories, which makes it easier to follow and identify what you are looking for.

For example, I typed in Barack Obama for President* and received typical search results, but at the top of the page, the Hakia head (not a talking head) gives a little more help about what I was searching for and directs me to the Barack Obama Gallery. The gallery is a categorized listing of everything Obama, very cool. As I continued my search, the Hakia head continued to give me facts about Barack such as:

How did you come up with that? Here is my choice: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to an American mother and a Kenyan father. See this page.

I would say that this could be another site that is ready to be picked by Google, but I think it is one that can stand on its own.

*This is not an endorsement for Barack Obama. At this time, I am not endorsing Mr. Obama or any other candidate for the 2008 Presidential election. Someday, maybe, but not today.