Powerset has many signs of being doomed. Natural language search, based on "commercialized" research, taking a long time to launch, talking a lot before doing it.
1. MSFT has cash in the bank and the Yahoo acquisition didn't go thorough
2. They are even more desperate now to bolster anything & everything to do with search & monetization
3. The perceived value of search companies (Powerset, Cuill) is higher since there are very few search companies that can allegedly make a difference to begin with, and even fewer buyers
Powerset is valued at 42 million (see venture beat article), if they are bought for 3x-5x that amount by msft and they can retain their independence they should probably go for it. If Powerset needs the same kind of computing resources, msft would be a better bet in supplying that.
Msft did something similar with TellMe in terms of retaining their independence apparently (no idea how far that is true).
I can deal with the company I work for being slammed on techcrunch, because that's what techcrunch is for. But to see the people on news.ycomb start jumping on that bandwagon makes me sad. This is supposed to be the place where startups are explored and taken seriously.
Powerset is not a micro-social site with some added value like some of my previous projects. Making a new search engine is a massive undertaking. It took google several years, but no one seems to want to give any challengers a real chance.
Console yourself with the thought that if PowerSet fixes this problem, you'll see a lot of haters become fanboys. Bear in mind, though, that the pre-bluster has historically been correlated with failure, not success, so people are skeptical. I've read about techniques that will cure cancer so many times.