About six years ago I was working feverishly on an acquisition for thinkthinkthink Inc. Our target? We wanted to buy a company founded by a professor at the University of Toronto. That company used A.I. algorithms to create natural language based online ad placements. The deal fell apart after the Internet market meltdown. It turns out the idea was ahead of its time.

Venturebeat.com has a story this month about "peer39," a New York startup that is using natural language and machine learning to increase ad conversion rates.

That company has raised $3 million from New York-based Dawntreader Ventures according to chief executive Amiad Solomon.

Natural language is the holy grail of the online ad industry as most everyone in the industry realizes that the next surge of revenue growth will be from non-geeks -- people who are not comfortable with the existing Internet.

Former digital titan Xerox is creating a Google-killing natural search engine according to Endless Innovation:

"A subsidiary of Xerox has signed an agreement to jointly develop and license search engine technology that they hope could lead to the next Google or Yahoo!. The agreement between Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and Powerset, both based in California, includes a long-term collaboration and technology licensing, with the Xerox subsidiary providing technology in exchange for royalties and an equity stake in Powerset.

Powerset’s search engine work focuses on “natural language,” which involves using ordinary, familiar sentence structure in searches, leading to easier, more accurate search results. The two firms have been working together since 2005."

Is there a company in Canada working in this sector?