Deliberate Ambiguity

Powerlabs Screenshot Demystified (+ pr0n)

Earlier today, Steve Newcomb posted a screenshot of Powerlabs on his blog.  Though we're not going to be opening the doors of Powerlabs until September, I'm stoked at the response we've had so far.  In light of some of the blog posts that have popped up, I wanted to clear up two points and then make one of my own.  The quick points are: 1) The screenshot is of Powerlabs, not the Powerset search application 2) Yes, the P-word is a possibility, but not something we're actively exploring 3) Expect much more from us in the near future.

What in Lord's name is that screenshot?

It's not a screenshot of Powerset's search application, it's a screenshot of Powerlabs.  I made a video to explain what Powerlabs is, but I'll go into a little bit more detail here.  Powerlabs is a grand experiment to get feedback from users as early in the development cycle as possible.  We're going to open up everything: screenshots, demo applications, relevance tests, technology, UI mockups, and whatever else we can find.  Most companies hide their great ideas under a bushel until they launch, for fear that someone will steal their thunder or that the community will see things that aren't perfectly polished.  Because of that, a lot of sites that are in "Beta" miss the mark.  I firmly believe that Powerset will benefit from all of the encouragement, ideas, and criticism we'll get from Powerlabs.  Our search engine might not be a big surprise when we launch, but I'd trade "surprise" for "great product" any day.

So, what you see in this particular screenshot is a category within Powerlabs exploring how natural language technologies can benefit travel.  We'll ask questions through surveys, gather ideas from community, allow users to comment and rate those ideas, run design competitions for the ultra-motivated, and, of course, show off our concept products to get feedback.  Travel is just one of the many categories that we'll explore, which brings me to my next point. . .

You didn't just say the P-word, did you?

Well, yes, we did.  Except for the fun glossy effect that Siqi created, we didn't alter this image at all from when it was created several weeks ago.  Porn was originally stuck in as a quasi-joke category: we doubted we'd launch a porn category in Powerlabs, but everyone knows that search engines are often used to find various kinds of prurient content, even if it's not polite to mention it in conversation.

However, I apologize to those who were getting excited by the possibilities opened up by natural language porn searches.  Powerset is too busy right now working on getting our natural language engine to understand "politician" and "know" (not in the Biblical sense) to be perfecting more ribald vocabulary.  Sorry to disappoint =)

When we decided to release this image to the outside world, the question was, of course: do we take out "Porn."  The product team stood by our desire to "open up the kimono," as Steve would say.  If we're serious about showing the inner workings of Powerset, then y'all are going to see things that are good, things that are bad, and the in between.  But, we gotta remain authentic.  It's your feedback that we're interested in, which brings me to my final point. . .

Just a screenshot?  Show me the beef!

Powerlabs is all about being open and engaging the community in the process of creating a mind-blowing next generation search engine.  It's only proper that we apply this same philosophy to the building of Powerlabs itself.  This screenshot will be the first of many that we release.  The final version of Powerlabs will likely look much different than what you see today (and that's a good thing!).  So, hit us with your best shot and give us feedback.  'Cause I'm listening.

Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I'm sorta speaking in my official capacity as Powerlabs Product Manager, but this is my own opinion and doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer.  [In fact, I hope they're OK with this when they read it tomorrow!]

Powerlabs Video

Making videos is fun!  I showed the world that there are real people behind Powerlabs, I played with iMovie and my built-in iSight, and hopefully I'll score a few dates!  Here it is:

Though we're currently working on Powerlabs, there's still a chance to enter into the dialog and give suggestions.  As we get further along in the development process, we'll definitely be soliciting feedback from the users who have signed up.  This communication will be the first of many about what's going on inside Powerset.

In sending this video to our Powerlabs , I was reminded that one needs to be very careful and precise when sending out mass e-mails.  The link in the e-mail was broken, because the YouTube video was set to "private" instead of "public."  A coworker proffered a conspiracy theory in which Google's Anti-Powerset Team (GAPT) changed the setting.  Though tempting, the blame is certainly mine.  Mea culpa!

Launching Powerlabs is the first step in my goal for friendly competition with usability giant Marissa Mayer.  First Powerlabs, then Powerset, then maybe a penthouse at One Rincon Hill (MM live in the penthouse of the much-shorter Four Seasons).

Sentence does not parse

When you work around a bunch of linguists, suddenly language becomes a playground.  Last night, someone at the bar said to me, "I've never not been here on a Thursday night."  Instead of my gut-reaction to correct his grammar, something just didn't seem right about that utterance.  I've thought about it a bit today and I came up with two possible interpretations:

1. "I come here every Thursday."
2. "I have only visited to this bar on Thursday, not on other nights."

In (1), the speaker is trying to express that he frequents the bar every Thursday night.  In (2), the speaker is saying that, every time that he comes to a bar is on Thursday.  From the context of the conversation, it was clear to me that he meant (2).

While pondering this question last night over booze, my initial reaction was to figure out a logical representation of the sentences.  If x is a day, then:

1. ∀(x) [ Thursday(x) ⇒ IamHere ]
2. ∀(x) [ IamHere ⇒ Thursday(x) ]

Nice, but it still doesn't help the problem of figuring out which one he meant.  Translating English words like "never" and "always" into logic can be very difficult.  After talking to a bunch of linguistics PhDs here at Powerset, I've come to the conclusion that there's actually some subtlety in the original formulation itself:

1. "I'm never not here on a Thursday"
2. "I've never not been here on Thursdays."

Subtle differences in tense and number seem to suggest different senses for these extremely similar sentences.  Because of the context of the conversation, I had a big advantage in selecting the right interpretation. 

Such sentences that break down my advanced parsing engine make me appreciate the technology in Powerset even more.  In every day conversation, we understand sentences without having to consider their structure.  Ambiguity occurs, but we humans have an incredible ability to use context to interpret sentences.  But, we do all of this instinctively: when we have to look at the syntax of a sentence and ask why we make the interpretation we do, it's really, really difficult.  Encoding all of those "natural" rules requires more than a naive understanding of language.

Any guesses about how many numbers I got at the bar last night? =)