New Natural Language Search Engine Launched

AskMeNow Inc. today announced the successful initial roll-out of AskWiki (www.askwiki.com), the first public natural language search of the vast user-generated Wikipedia database.

Following a one-week alpha trial, the AskWiki Beta launch is one of the first major deployments of natural language search open to the entire online world. Initially, core Wikipedia Community users and CTIA conference attendees were invited to try AskWiki. In its first four days, the service successfully answered more than 20,000 questions with an average time spent on the site of seven minutes. Correctly answered questions ranged from the specific to the general and included:

What is the capital of France? What is the population of Paris?, Where does brie cheese come from?, and even Do mice eat cheese?

“The response to AskWiki has been overwhelmingly positive,” said AskMeNow CEO Darryl Cohen. “And we’re hopeful AskWiki will become a blueprint for the power of natural language search to fundamentally alter how mobile and desktop users access information on the Internet.”

AskWiki is now in the planned early stage development Beta period. The current natural language search portal provides answers to a wide range of basic queries and the system is built in a manner that allows the AskWiki engine to improve based on user feedback and collaboration.

Over the next few months it is anticipated that the accuracy rate will dramatically increase as greater user input helps mature the system. Additionally, the natural language search tool will continue to index more data within Wikipedia and focus more time on the linguistic analysis of questions, both of which are part of the expected process to deliver a successful product.

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