Valleywag
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caption contest
The $100 million flipper
Yes, that's Powerset founder Barney Pell in the water with a real, live dolphin. And sorry, this time the "Hot Dolphin with Douchebag" joke has already been made. The zoophilia joke, however, hasn't. So come up with a better headline — best submission in the comments becomes the new title of this post. Yesterday's Pellapalooza grand prize winner was Rock tha Hizzee with "Grandpa, no!" -
caption contest
Grandpa, no!
Powerset founder Barney Pell brazenly reaches past former TechCrunch contributor Calley Nye's first available knee for an extra helping of frottage during the TechCrunch50 conference festivities. For Pell, the "Hot Chicks with Douchebags" joke has already been made, so you'll have to come up with something better in the comments if you want to win the honor of rewriting the headline. Yesterday UncleSalty took home the trophy with "How to make a baloney sandwich." -
exits
Why did Microsoft buy Powerset? Not for founder Barney Pell
Microsoft has confirmed its $100 million purchase of Powerset, the overhyped search engine whose buzz flared and fizzled last year. Cofounder Barney Pell, whom investors pushed out of his CEO seat last November, amid rumors of a top-level love triangle, may not last long after the deal. Consider the faint praise Microsoft offers for him: More » -
acquisitions
Microsoft buys Powerset search for 90 percent off Yahoo search list price
Powerset never quite managed to launch with their natural language parsing search product. But they did give everyone a glimpse with a preview of search for Wikipedia. Not quite game-changing enough for Yahoo to buy or Amazon's Jeff Bezos to invest in, but just enough to get Microsoft to pay $100 million. Which is considerably less what Team Redmond would have paid for Yahoo's search business. Not bad for a company running on borrowed hopes and dreams. (By Intern Alaska, photo from Powerset) More » -
superficial
Is former Powerset CEO Barney Pell the douchebag with these hot chicks?
One of the most important and profound visual chronicles of our times, Hot Chicks with Douchebags, may have found a photo of former Powerset CEO Barney Pell with a bunch of hot chicks. This character certainly shares the same taste in shirts, the same number of buttons loosed and the same liberal use of the hands that he demonstrated in an earlier photo with a hot chick and some douchebags. What say ye, is this Pell with a proto-goatee auditioning for a role in a sequel to A Night at the Roxbury? -
nerdfight
Jimmy Wales vs. Barney Pell
We have a hard time picking a loser in the contest for world's worst search-engine startup: Powerset, where the founders' love triangle proved far more interesting than its technology, or Wikia Search, Jimmy Wales's laughably nonfatal Google killer. What both have in common: Their search results prominently feature links to Wikipedia, also founded by Wales. Wikia Search, like Wikipedia, has volunteers edit its search results; Powerset uses an algorithm to analyze Wikipedia pages, and tries to answer the questions implicit in users' searches accordingly. Wales is unimpressed by Powerset. But we're struck by how much he and Powerset cofounder Barney Pell have in common — a semantic link neither search engine has uncovered. -
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barney pell
Powerset's Wikipedia search can't answer our "natural language" search
Let's ignore the fact that Powerset's core technology is only licensed from Xerox PARC. Even then, we're disappointed in today's public debut from publicity-ridden search engine Powerset. Cofounders Barney Pell and Steve Newcomb intended to create a "natural language" search engine that allowed users to phrase search queries in the way they speak. But after informing its search by trolling Wikipedia, Powerset couldn't even answer our one most important question: "Which Powerset executive slept with another's wife?" Powerset's answer: LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. No offense, Reid, but we're almost certain that's not correct. -
rumormonger
Yahoo to buy Powerset?
Whither Powerset, the once-hot search engine backed by a heavenly set of angel investors, including Facebook board member Peter Thiel? Little has been heard from the startup since COO Steve Newcomb left amid rumors of a C-suite love triangle. Cofounder Barney Pell — another leg in the whispered-about tryst — is so checked out that he's wasting time coding Facebook applications. The company has been searching, so far fruitlessly, for a CEO. Now comes word that Yahoo may be interested in buying the startup. More » -
rumormonger
Powerset founders' love-triangle mystery grows deeper
When Barney Pell, Powerset's former CEO, got demoted to CTO last week, we reported rumors that C-level hanky panky might have played a role. Now another tipster writes in to clarify that the "other CEO" mentioned must have been Pell's cofounder, COO Steve Newcomb. The new tipster can't confirm the first rumor that an affair soured relations between the two founders, but seems happy to offer plenty of other theories on why Powerset was doomed from the start. More » -
rumormonger
Hanky-panky ousts Pell as Powerset CEO?
Barney Pell is out as CEO at Powerset, the natural-language search engine. Pell will become CTO while the board begins a search for a new CEO. What's with the reshuffling? We're not sure, but a tipster tells us some C-level hanky-panky might have been involved. More »
powerset
San Francisco, 6:42 PM
Mon Dec 1
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