With Yahoo! facing pressure from a corporate raider, the internet giant has reopened discussions on a tie-up with Microsoft, but for a new deal that would probably not be an outright takeover. The two firms said over the weekend that they were exploring new options two weeks after Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire the struggling internet pioneer.
Powerset on Sunday unveiled tools for searching Wikipedia that use conversational phrasing instead of keywords, marking the first step of its challenge to established web-search services such as Google. Powerset’s technology breaks down the meaning of words and sentences into related concepts, freeing users from always needing to type the exact words they want to find.