Waterloo's Primal Fusion announced the launch of its semantic technology platform and the world's first consumer "thought networking" service at the DEMO 09 conference yesterday. After years of dropping hints about "thought networking," Primal Fusion demoed to the world what it's been up to and the Waterloo Record's Matt Walcoff sums it up well.
The software takes advantage of years of research in semantics to help users create a "thought cloud" that represents how they think about a given subject.
The user starts by typing in a subject -- say, "technology." The software then returns dozens of words connected with technology, such as "computers," "culture," "education" and so on. The user clicks on some of those words to refine his or her thoughts about technology. The software can also return content like news stories and pictures that can be added to the thought cloud. The more items added to the cloud, the better it reflects one's mind.
The result is a "lattice" of words and other items that represents what the user is looking for from the internet. The software can then use that cloud to search for and return information, rather than require the user to go through lists of search-page results to pick out what he or she wants.
DEMO Executive Producer Chris Shipley was quick to label thought networking as "one of the first compelling consumer applications we've seen for Web 3.0."
Founder Peter Sweeney started on the technology 10 years ago and launched Primal Fusion four years ago. The 32 employee company has raised $5 Million to date in both venture capital and debt funding and they have their on a $16 Million round.