keith said:
>   The method is not new. It was used
>   successfully for wheather reports already

the "method" might not be new.

but what _is_ different, and undeniably so,
is that google has a _huge_ corpus of text
with which to implement the method now,
possibly the "secret sauce" to make it work.

this asset, and its bearing on the problem,
should not be underestimated.  and indeed,
that huge corpus could exert all manner of
effects on a wide variety of knowledge tasks.

the information about the world represented
by _billions_ of web-pages out in cyberspace
could lead to the gleaning of vast knowledge.
(so much so that it could become very scary.)

-bowerbird