Wolfram Alpha: Google Competitor Could Be Smarter Search Engine

The Independent:

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail -- a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Read the whole story: The Independent

Comments

[yappnmutt]

the only search engine that could compete with google is one that makes more money per view.

[planetjeffy]

Join the "better than Google" once a month club. Wolf A will be merely a result on a Google SERP in the future.

[disintaGreatNation]

In the access-to-­informatio­n department, the Google search engine did for the internet what movable type did for literacy. The GSE caused access to information to explode. Thank you, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

[goodog]

"Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as "how high is Mount Everest?", but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts."

Color me unimpressed, but I just googled "how high is Mount Everest?" and got a neat page of related information --- all properly sourced --- such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts.

A search engine that delivers a neat page of related informatio­n... it's diabolical of google to have stolen this idea and made it to market first.

[Gib]

I guessed before following the link that this product would have "Wolfram" in the name. Anyone remember "A New Kind of Science", published by Wolfram Press? That made a big impact on how science is conducted, didn't it? I foresee a similar impact from this software.

[jsgaetano]

"Better than Google"... ah, if only I had a dollar everytime some company claimed that...

I wonder i Wolfram is going to claim to "not be evil", and then start helping China filter search results.

[toadicux]

There aren't many evil mathematicians in history.

[KansasWrangler]

I thought Cuil was supposed to be the giant killer when it came out last year.

[wordvarc]

Could be, maybe, someday, somehow...

[gvc]

Uh huh. Why is HuffPo and the rest of the media carrying this marketing hyperbole?

The approach is the exact opposite of what Google did: put an exceedingly simple system on the web that "just worked."

[LeftLeanWing]

This seems more like a competitor for Wikipedia than for Google search.

[AtheistUS]

I think it can be equally competitive to Wikipedia and to Google, the point is it has simple artificial intelligence to answer questions and to bring relevant information from internet.

Good luck to Wolfram. His latest book was a failure, but his software is great. Big vision.

[LeftLeanWing]

Is this the beginning of HAL

[Lee Andrew]

Bravo, bring it on and share with the masses who are tired of Google's monopoly.

[Progressive Pete]

Yeah, google suc.ks!!! I hate finding stuff online with ease.

[NoblesseOblige]

LOL!

[twisted-european]

High time data-grubbing Google gets some competition ...