Fun and games with disambiguation

One of the coolest things I have learned in the last few years is the notion of disambiguation, a linguist's term for determining the right meaning of a word within a specific context. My current favorite example to illustrate this is:

This is important, as not knowing which meaning of “manhattan" is being referenced, whether in a search query or in piece of content, can really impact how well algorithms can leverage words. While my interests are currently focused on automated query building, certainly there are many, many interesting things that can be done when proper word definitions are known. Here's an example from our experimental search engine, howdoya.com on how to mix a manhattan. Note all the useful words on the left you can use to refine your query -- disambiguation! Now, if you want to see something really interesting, click on the x-ray glasses next to each search result -- again, disambiguation! A world of possibilities.