Thursday, December 11, 2003

Brainboost Answers

BrainBoost is a new search engine that focusses on giving answers to natural language questions. It answered most of my test questions successfully, though rather slow:

Who are the founders of Google?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google.

Who is the current President of the USA?

The current President of the USA is interested to follow the interests of oil and gas sector, like his father who had an eye to the same interests in the Persian Gulf War.

Who is the author of “So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish"?

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams (Author) Look inside this book.

When was Einstein born?

Albert Einstein - Biography Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879.

Who is the director of “Full Metal Jacket"?

Stanley Kubrick : Information on the life and work of the director of Full Metal Jacket.

What is Brainboost?

BrainBoost : http://www.brainboost.com/wap BrainBoost is the worlds most advanced Question Answering search engine.

Brainboost Answers by Philipp Lenssen

Butler Jeeves Interviewed

At times search engine Ask.com’s friendly butler Jeeves answers your questions directly instead of just presenting web results. The following brief interview was conducted via the search box of www.ask.com and www.ask.co.uk, revealing various easter eggs*.

How are you?

Splendid! Would you like to ask another question?

Are you stupid?

Isn’t stupid is as stupid does?

What time is it in Germany?

It is 6:33:30 PM CET in Berlin, Germany.

How big is the earth?

What is the diameter of the earth?
[Shows: “Diameter: 12,753 km (7,926 miles)"]

Does Jeeves Know All?

[Jeeves takes you to his Magic Eightball]

Does Jeeves have an evil twin?

No, no, that is nothing more than a scurrilous rumour!

Where are you

I reside at Ask.com. Would you like to ask another question?

How old are you

[Points to information about Ask Jeeves, which “was created in 1996 by David Warthen and Garrett Gruener”.]

Is Jeeves gay

Is Jeeves gay?
Actually, I prefer the term jovial.

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

What do you mean? An African or European swallow?
[Quotes Monty Python.]

Drink Me

[Shows picture of Alice in Wonderland.]

What is the best search engine?

[Refers to Ask.com]

**** **

Wouldn’t you rather take a nice, cold shower?

Where am I

[Shows a picture of the Milky Way.]

Who am I

[Shows site: “You have the answers within yourself”]

*An easter egg is something a programmer incorporates into a program, displaying certain images or text, animations or sounds – but you will only find it doing something special with the program (something no normal user without the inside knowledge would ever think of doing). Like when you enter “about:mozilla” (no quotes) into the address bar of Netscape/ Mozilla browsers. And it works on web sites, too. It’s one way for programmers or web developers to insert jokes, credits or opinion without anyone else knowing (e.g. the customer, boss, or most users).

Butler Jeeves Interviewed by Philipp Lenssen

>> More posts

Advertisement