Search Sites Try to Give Instant Answers

PC World tested some natural language searching on AskJeeves; GuruNet’s Answers.com, a relative newcomer to Web search; and MSN Search. All three sites were on target with the question “What was John Dillinger famous for?” (though we had to click the top link at Answers.com), and they also aced “Who was the 17th president of the United States?” Yet none of the three could immediately answer a question about the speed of USB 2.0 versus ethernet.