Want to create your own semantic search engine, but just don’t have the PhDs? Semantic search engine Hakia is opening up APIs to let anyone build their own semantic search application on top of its technology. Hakia looks at the meaning of Web pages and matches search queries using its own quality index of trusted, relevant sites.
Hakia, which competes with PowerSet and TextWise in semantic search, hopes to spread its technology by enticing developers to adopt it. The first partner is mobile app provider Berggi, which created a semantic mobile search app for AT&T and Sprint phones. I downloaded it to my AT&T Blackberry, but the application froze up when I tried to enter a search term. Maybe it’s my phone.
Under the terms of the API, developers and startups will get 30,000 searches per day for free, and anything above that will require a license. The different types of applications the API canbe used for include:
Web Search
News Search
Vertical Search (such as health or energy)
Text Summarizer
Text Categorizer
Text Characterizer (“Identifies and expands descriptive phrases or tags. Ideal for SEM”)
Text Meaning Representation
The only problem is that the link the company provides to get more information about its Web syndication services takes you to a sign-up page for Club Hakia. And once you register, the entry for Syndication Services says “Coming Soon.” Lame. Update: That link is now live and takes you here, but you still need to sign up. And there is more info now on the open Web at the Hakia blog.
If anyone manages to actually try this out, please let us know what you think in comments.
meaning representation of a given text block, suitable for core technology development