IBM is developing a pretty clever search engine named WebFountain. The engine indexes the web in a similar way as typical search engines do, but additionally uses automatic annotation modules that “makes sense” of the meaning of the indexed documents. Sadly for us nerds, they don’t plan to make this a public search engine, but rather a tool for data analysts and research companies, paying substantial amounts for access to the engine. But this is certainly one of the hints that search engines are becoming a smarter breed (see also Google’s Director of technology’s comment here in Wired’s 2004 predictions).
– A Fountain of Knowledge