WolframAlpha=CrazySearch
May 20, 2009 | By Joel Dehlin | 4 Comments
If you haven’t tried WolframAlpha, check it out.
Here is a screencast that explains.
It’s a search engine which returns organized data from queries based on normal language. You can ask it math questions, statistics questions, questions about nutritional content, popularity of baby names and so forth.
Notice how often it doesn’t understand your question–unlike Google where you almost always get a result, even if it’s not what you want. In this case, humans are doing more work behind the magic, trying to predict what people will ask. Though you don’t always get a result, when you do get a result it’s more satisfying.
justin hileman said...
I sure hope it pans out. It seems like a great idea, and certainly has enough hype. Unfortunately the only searches I can get to work are the sample ones…
“web developer salary in new york” failed miserably. It does know the answer to “Life, the Universe and Everything” though
May 20, 2009 6:33 am #
Mike said...
Additional Wolfram|Alpha information and fun content:
Five Things Wolfram Alpha Does Better (And Vastly Different) Than Google
http://mashable.com/2009/05/19/wolfram-alpha-better-than-google/
Top 10 Wolfram Alpha Easter Eggs
http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/wolfram-easter-eggs/
10 Even Better Wolfram Alpha Easter Eggs
http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/better-wolfram-easter-eggs/
May 20, 2009 8:26 am #
Jeremy said...
Wolfram|Alpha != Google Search and isn’t meant to be. It’s a computational knowledge engine.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/faqs.html
May 20, 2009 10:00 am #
Brenden said...
Their terms of service seems pretty scary to me.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090518204959409
May 20, 2009 1:02 pm #