START, the world's first Web-based question answering system, has been on-line and continuously operating since December, 1993. It has been developed by Boris Katz and his associates of the InfoLab Group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Unlike information retrieval systems (e.g., search engines), START aims to supply users with "just the right information," instead of merely providing a list of hits. Currently, the system can answer millions of English questions about places (e.g., cities, countries, lakes, coordinates, weather, maps, demographics, political and economic systems), movies (e.g., titles, actors, directors), people (e.g., birth dates, biographies), dictionary definitions, and much, much more. Below is a list of some of the things START knows about, with example questions. You can type your question above or select from the following examples.
START, the world's first Web-based question answering system, has been on-line and continuously operating since December, 1993. It has been developed by Boris Katz and his associates of the InfoLab Group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Geography
- What South-American country has the largest population?
- What's the largest city in Florida?
- Give me the states that border Colorado.
- What cities are within 250 miles of the capital of Italy?
- How many people live in Israel?
- Show me a map of Denmark.
- How far is Mount Kilimanjaro from Mount Everest?
- List some large cities in Argentina.
- Show the capital of the 2nd largest country in Asia.
- How much does it cost to study at MIT?
- More examples...
Science and Reference
- What is Jupiter's atmosphere made of?
- Who first discovered radiocarbon dating?
- How far is Neptune from the sun?
- Why is the sky blue?
- What planet has the smallest surface area?
- How many feet are there in a kilometer?
- Convert 100 dollars into Euros.
- Show me a metro map of Moscow.
- How many languages are spoken in Afghanistan?
- Give me the GDP of Taiwan.
- How is the weather in Boston today?
- More examples...
Arts and Entertainment
History and Culture
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