Wolfram Alpha

[legion]

Have you guys heard of this?

Wolfram (based in Champaign, IL) is launching a web search service to compete with Google.

From what I gather, it's supposed to be similar to what Ask Jeeves was intended to be, but is intended to answer much more complicated questions--and actually answer them, not just link you to web pages that may contain the answer.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

[Heel n Toe]

http://www50.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=monitor+lizard

[porsche4life]

So its like wikipedia sorta?

[legion]

Not quite. Wikipedia stores its own data and simply presents a pre-edited webpage as the result of a search. Wolfram Alpha creates a web page on the fly to answer the question posed.

[RWebb]

yes heard it was a huge huge concentration of computing power

[Heel n Toe]

http://www09.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bikini+babes

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

http://www09.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bikini+babes

Fail.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by RWebb

yes heard it was a huge huge concentration of computing power

If there's one place to run something like that, it's U of Illinois. They've basically been redefining the cutting edge of computing for decades.

[jyl]

calories avocado - gives an answer plus other nutritional info
health benefits avocado - doesn't compute
best avocado recipe - doesn't compute
world production avocado - doesn't compute
types of avocado - doesn't compute
avocado tree - doesn't compute

Hmm - not impressed.

[jyl]

Iran GDP - gives me a single number.
Iran revolution - does not compute. But suggests I try
"Units:
information about a unit revolution
Countries:
information about a country Iran"
whatever that means
Iran demographics - gives me some basic info.
Iran oil production - gives me 2007 4.7X10^6 bbl/day. Nothing about other years, trends, causes, etc.

Still not impressed.

So far, looks like a place to go if I have a narrow and obvious question that is answered by a single number and I want that answer fast.

[legion]

It's just been realeased for first public use within the past several hours. This is one of those things that even after months of testing, the public is going to throw it curveballs they never thought of.

Hopefully it will get better with time.

[URY914]

You could just email me any questions you may have about anything. You see I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night and I'm feelin' pretty smart today.

[jyl]

Will keep trying it from time to time. I'd like more alternatives to Google.

[Heel n Toe]

http://www19.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=google

[TheMentat]

I've used Wolfram for a lot of math reference in the past. This is pretty cool...

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by jyl

Still not impressed.

So far, looks like a place to go if I have a narrow and obvious question that is answered by a single number and I want that answer fast.

Yeah... totally useless...

[Joe Bob]

Ummm, 42.....

[TimT]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/19/dziuba_wolfram/

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by mikez

Ummm, 42.....

Ian

[Zeke]

Seems to me there was a search engine launched last year and I hear nothing....