What I hear you saying is...

Thoughtful post from Greg Linden yesterday about a talk he attended in which the CEO of Powerset gave a high-level overview of the eponymous NLP-search they've been working on. He summarizes with:

In the end, the talk did not address my concern that Powerset is overpromising in the press and is likely to underdeliver. What I would really like to do is play with a live Powerset demo, perhaps Powerset powering Wikipedia search or the search for a major newspaper, and see more details behind the technology. For now, I remain worried that the pitch is running far ahead of the product.

Back in February, I posted my doubts about whether Powerset could deliver a product that could usurp any of the major/minor search players. Three-and-a-half months later, still no working demo available.

But now I'm beginning to care less what they end up shipping. Now I'm more fascinated to see how long Powerset can sustain this amazing dog-and-pony show without any working application. The PR mojo leprechans are in full overdrive for these guys. I mean, can't anything stop them?

There needs to be a catchy phrase that describes when a start-up passes the point of no-return in having any feasible chance of delivering a product that comes close to meeting its associated level of hype. "Jump the Shark" doesn't work, because it implies there was something working well for a while, but then you milked it to death. "VaporWare" doesn't work either, because it connotes a monopolistic move by a big player to crush someone like Powerset -- not the other way around.

"Jumping the vapor?" or how about "Vaporizing the shark?" No, those suck.

Hmmm.

Maybe when this whole thing pans out, just the name "Powerset" will simply define a spectacular flame-out of hyper-inflated PR with no deliverable, kinda like the way that "Freebird" defines the 20-minute rock anthem.

I hope not, because I like Barney's moxie...

But still -- cash prize for a winning-entry, kids!