My first Wolfram Queries Input interpretation: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Result: A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood (according to the tongue-twister)
Input interpretation: answer to life, the universe, and everything Result: 42 (according to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) --- In [email protected], Robert <babajii...@...> wrote: > > From The Times > May 18, 2009 > > Google challenged by new rival with all the answers - WolframAlpha > > Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent > > A revolutionary new search engine that computes answers rather than pointing > to websites will be launched officially today amid heated talk that it could > challenge the might of Google. > WolframAlpha, named after Stephen Wolfram, the British-born computer > scientist and inventor behind the project, takes a query and uses > computational power to crunch through huge databases. > The service can compute the distance between two cities, the population of a > country at a specific date and the position of the Space Shuttle at a given > moment. The user does not have to search through links provided by the > engine; the answer comes immediately and, if appropriate, is accompanied by > charts or graphs. What it does that Google, at the moment, cannot do is > provide answers to questions that have not been answered already. > The new service, available at wolframalpha.com, was previewed several months > ago amid industry speculation that it could be a âGoogle killerâ. Dr > Wolfram, however, is at pains to point out that his brainchild is a > âcomputational knowledge engineâ, not a traditional search engine. > A physics prodigy who earned a PhD aged 20, Dr Wolfram, 49, founded Wolfram > Research, in Illinois, which develops advanced software called Mathematica, > used mainly by scientists. Mathematica has built up a number of databases and > Wolfram Alpha is an attempt to bring them to a wider audience. > The service is free but the company plans to include advertising eventually > and to offer paid versions with extra features. Dr Wolfram said that > WolframAlpha was a âlong-term projectâ and he hoped to broaden the > databases that it uses. > Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, the website, said: > âThey're saying they're not trying to wipe out Google, but they feel they > do the kinds of searches that Google doesn't handle. If you're trying to get > facts, this might be a handy kind of encyclopedia for you.â > Last week Google previewed a new experimental service called Google Squared, > which will automatically produce spreadsheets of information from search > terms. > Mike Harvey's blog: WolframAlpha - should Google be quaking in its boots?
