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Okay, I missed the long awaited release of Wolfram Alpha, the all new search engine that has been creating tons of anticipatory buzz for several months now, but not by much: it was quietly rolled out on Friday night with the official launch scheduled for today.
I first heard of the search engine this past January and immediately became intrigued by what it promised to do. However, given the previous great Cuil failure, I approached Wolfram Alpha’s release with a bit of trepidation, fearing that the hype would lead to a major disappointment. I’m happy to report that Wolfram doesn’t disappoint, in fact I think it’ll supplement Google search in the minds of many web users.
My Review, Just A Preview
Just to let you know, I have yet to spend endless hours on Wolfram so my review is from a “first look” perspective. Over an extended period of time I’ll gradually examine what Wolfram has to offer before offering up a full review, meanwhile I’m sure you’ll be reading a lot about this search engine elsewhere over the coming days.
For hardcore search engine geeks — that would be anyone who long ago embraced Google search as their default search engine of choice — the question that comes up with Wolfram is why do we need a new search engine? Well, we don’t but I’m a firm believer in competition and I also think that there is room for improvement/refinement with all of our favorite online tools including Google search. Google Squared was just released which, from what I’ve heard, will provide similar results as Wolfram.
Your Computational Search Engine
Wolfram approaches search differently from basic Google search in that if you enter a term you aren’t going to be served up an endless number of pages which may or may or may not have anything to do with what you’re looking for. Nor will you be subjected to endless contextual ads at least not initially.
For example, when I entered the term “New York” in the search bar, the results served up were for New York City, listing the city’s population, the population of the metropolitan area, a map of the 48 contiguous United States pinpointing New York’s location, local time, current temperature and elevation. Click on a couple links and you can see satellite imagery of the city and retrieve coordinates. And, if you really meant New York State instead of the city, one additional click can bring you information about the state.
Keep Your Queries Simple!
In short, Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine, one that serves up math based answers. So far I’ve discovered the simpler the query submitted, the better for getting spot on answers.
For example, if your question is, “How many miles from New York to Miami?” you’ll get “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input” as your answer. However, if you make your query simple such as “distance New York Miami” you’ll get an answer. So, keep it simple and Wolfram will be able to serve up the correct answer.
If you’re looking for additional takes on Wolfram Alpha, then I suggest you start with Wolfram Alpha, Google ‘rival’, launches or Wolfram Alpha: Wikipedia Killer? for some good reads.
Related Articles
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- Apple’s Siri Drives 25 Percent Of Wolfram|Alpha Queries (searchengineland.com)
- Forget Google Instant: In the Future, Search Engines Will Read Your Habits (mashable.com)
I think it will take another 10 year for wolfram to be perfect as it is based on Artificial Intelligence.
Weird, I like the AI aspects of it but at this point I doubt anyone will be able to “take Google by surprise” so to speak and come up with some unique search engine feature that the big G hasn’t already thought of or can’t quickly implement. I’m pretty sure Goog is here to stay.
I still don’t totally understand Wolfram Alpha. From my experience, the people in the know seem to think of it more as a calculator than a replacement for Google.
Either way, I’m always game for using alternatives, just to keep Google from getting too powerful…
@Sourav — It could be much sooner than that!
@DVD — Google most certainly will be around the long haul. If they can’t beat someone, they buy them instead.
@Alfred — To answer my own question: No, Wolfram Alpha isn’t the only search engine you need. Unless, of course, you’re only looking for scientific/mathematical answers. Google Squared will handle some of that stuff too, so WA will only offer a minimal challenge to the Big G.
I just checked it out last night myself. It is impressive.
I read about it in a column by an Aussie journalist. She mentioned that it had quite a sense of humor. For instance if you asked: “What’s the meaning of life?” It would answer: “Forty two.”
I suspect lots of people will be typing in such queries!
Matt, forty-two is the answer to the meaning of life! Seriously, the human touch seems to come out with some of the Wolfram Alpha answers as you aptly noted. I’ll have to try to ask WA some offbeat questions too.
Matt Keegans last blog post..Ford Likely To Overtake GM This Year
Very interesting. I ran a few test searches and watched the video. As you said, it’s no replacement for Google, but it could be very useful for certain types of quick research. I’ve bookmarked Wolfram for future use. Thanks for reviewing it!
Shari, Wolfram Alpha is definitely a niche search engine, but I can see where mathematicians and scientist type folks would like it a lot. I like to ask it geographical type questions such as, “Where is Boone, North Carolina?” and see that result on a map. Then I click on satellite imagery to get a better look and pull up the coordinates. Truly geeky stuff, but interesting!
All praise to Wolfram Alpha for an innovative approach. Like all software applications that have to be predicated on some prior philosophical assumptions. The ‘math’ based foundation and the type of results generated imply a very ‘Positivistic’ set of assumptions concerning the nature of ‘facts’ and ‘knowledge’. Our social worlds are much more fuzzy and ambiguous. A more ‘interpretative’ set of design assumptions might have resulted in a very different engine.
I also gave this new search engine atry but I am not impressed at all. may be I need to spend more time to really appreciate it?
It’s weird that they didn’t make it recognise regular questions. Even google recognises it even though it’s not its main function.