Meaning based search engines

[Westat1]

Are meaning based search engines still active? How popular are they? What are some? I read articles from 99 that state meaning based engines are the next generations of search engines. Does this still hold true, if not what is the future?

[Brett_Tabke]

Depends on what you "mean" by meaning based search engine?

You have Ask Jeeves with its natural language default search option.

The other se's have integrated similar stuff into their system. eg: "grub stake" is much different than "wooden stake" - or "windows pain" is different than "windows pain".

As for ramifications? Just means better search engines returning more accurate results.

The real trick will come with personalization of the search engines. When they can track your previous searches and then extrapolate and refine possible searches - then we are onto something. Teoma sort has that now with their super cool refine search option.