Download Squad

We hear a lot of talk about the "Semantic Web" these days. The idea is that search engines like Google are inherently dumb. Sure, they do a pretty good job of returning accurate results to keyword searches. But because id doesn't actually understand natural language, you can't ask Google a straightforward yes or no question and expect an answer. Just search results.

Of course, for the most part, Google does a pretty good job of giving you what you're looking for. That's why Twine's Nova Spivack told us recently that his company decided to build a semantic social networking site rather than a search engine. But startup True Knowledge has its sights set on Google, Yahoo, and the other big names in search.

The True Knowledge search engine is currently in private beta, so you can't really check it out yet. And that makes us take everything in this demo video with a grain of salt. For all we know, True Knowledge can still only answer questions about J. Lo appropriately, but doesn't know the difference between Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Beals.

That said, True Knowledge does look pretty interesting. We like the way that the web application does more than spit out a bunch of relevant web pages, but rather gives you an answer and then shows its work.