As the Yahoo deal attempt led to absolutely nothing for Microsoft, the software giant decided to give Internet search another go by acquiring Powerset Inc. The Internet search company is working on developing its search engine and improving its capabilities of understanding human language.

Microsoft is obviously trying to cut some of Google’s advantage, and if the deal with Yahoo was doomed to fail, maybe Powerset will do the trick. Earlier this week, the two companies confirmed a deal meant to take search to the next level.

Although rumors about the acquisition evolve around the sum of $100 million, the purchase price was not disclosed. Microsoft’s acquisition at this point seems to be one for the future, as the two companies unveiled.

Microsoft is clearly on a shopping spree in the Internet field, and more than half the acquisitions made this year are from this sector. After months and months of frustrations and failed negotiations, the Yahoo deal failed to give Microsoft the position they wanted, right behind Google.

“Because our goals around improving search align so well, Powerset has decided to team up with Microsoft, Mark Johnson explained on the company’s blog, adding that “this is the fastest way to bring our technology to market at a large scale.” And to give Microsoft a little push, we might add.

Microsoft unveiled that Powerset will join their Search Relevance team, while remaining intact in San Francisco, where the company is based. According to Powerset, Microsoft shares their goal to improve search through deeper analysis of queries and documents, and also understands that Powerset’s technology and expertise will play an essential role in the evolution of search.

The Redmond-based company explained their decision of buying Powerset “first and foremost because we’re impressed with the people there,” and also for their experience, passion for search and a shared vision, which is to take search to the next level by adding understanding of the intent and meaning behind the words in searches and webpages.

Powerset will continue to operate as before, keeping the same organizational structure and team and continuing to “tackle” the challenges of parsing, semantics, ranking, indexing, scalable computing, user experience and other specialties.

The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2005 by Foundation Capital, Founders Fund and Paperboy Ventures, and became best known for the search engine they’ve created for Wikipedia articles, which tries to answer questions like “Who is” or “What is” in order to better adapt to the user’s needs.

The search goes beyond keywords, as Powerset allows users to enter keywords, phrases, or questions, and offers them, instead of a list of links, better search results, while sometimes answering directly to the user’s question.

After the acquisition, Powerset.com will continue to host the Wikipedia Search & Discovery, as well as continue to experiment with the product, based on user feedback.

According to Microsoft, one third of the searches don’t get answered on the first search and first click, due to differences in phrasing or context between a user’s search and the way the same information is expressed on webpages, or due to the lack of clarity in the descriptions for each webpage in the search results.

In the coming months, more details on the progress of understanding searches and webpages through natural language technology are expected to become available.