Why Wolfram Alpha Flopped

Okay, so after months of inflamed hype, Wolfram Alpha launched a week or so ago and nearly everyone agrees it is terrible. The question is not how it could be so terrible; it is why everyone didn't know from the start that it would be terrible. Stephen Wolfram is a brilliant software engineer, but his horizons address the abstract infinite spaces of computational logic, and so he misses the trees for the forest, the earth for the heavens. Let's be blunter. Wolfram Alpha is terrible because Stephen Wolfram doesn't respect and fear data.

Wolfram Alpha depends upon data, thousands of different electronic reference sources, "about nine-tenths of what you'd see on the main shelves of a reference library," according to Wolfram. The problem with the assumption that this data foundation is adequate is two-fold. First, the amount of information locked in online databases, information that even Google cannot access, is exponentially larger than what one would find on the shelves of a reference library. Second, even integrating the data on a reference library shelf for the purposes of logical computation requires surmounting basic database relationship challenges that no one has yet to resolve.

Those who toil in vast and lonely data mines quickly learn that structured data is no one's friend. Most data does not talk easily or work cooperatively with other data. Yoking database tables together is painstaking, difficult, and often requires hacks and tricks and legerdemain worthy of Houdini. Issues of timeliness, reliability, and performance stymie nearly every ambitious data development effort. At the end of the day, the week, the month, and the year, the creation of useful and powerful database applications requires careful, intelligent attention to the details of the data. Working with databases is artisanal, not mathematical. It is like brewing fine craft beer, not building the Starship Enterprise.

Comments

[goodgy25]

"At the end of the day, the week, the month, and the year, the creation of useful and powerful database applications requires careful, intelligent attention to the details of the data. Working with databases is artisanal, not mathematical. It is like brewing fine craft beer, not building the Starship Enterprise."

Brilliant - and who are these "artisans"? They are called librarians. They are human beings, and their skills and expertise are necessary ones in any society or culture.

[Paramendra Bhagat]

It has not flopped.

Google is a search engine. Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine. Can't really compare the two.

http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolfram-apha-is-cool.html

[research]

The structure data problems comment is really interesting.

Database, Cad files, Schematics, no common formats after 50 years!

I guess the machines won't take over after all.

[OtayPanky]

Anyone who stays up nights worrying that robots are going to take over can relax. The Tower of Babel effect will thwart them.

We can't even settle on an architecture for PC operating systems - 30 years into our use of them. But it does make for some cute commercials.

[Dystopic]

database - not really a physical format but SQL is universal

CAD files - DWG or DXF

[research]

3d splines?

[robotfog]

well this would never have happened had I been consulted beforehand.

[OtayPanky]

Wulfram's smart, but clearly he's not wise.

[RobinSeattle]

Wolfram is the new Cuil, except nerdier.

[robotfog]

maybe if they got together. Then they might might surmount the sum of their parts. Or do a better search engine.

[TakeSake]

Perhaps this is like Deep Thought, and will help design the system to replace it.

It's as if this is version 1.0. What will it be like when it's version 9.0?

[OtayPanky]

Blogger: Working with databases is artisanal, not mathematical.

===

You're right.

Wulfram's project will work, I'm sure, once there is a single, uniform way of storing non-numeric data in databases - and all the players adhere to the same conventions.

But absent some sort of one world government issuing singular data standards by fiat, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. In our capitalist, free market world, getting techies to adhere to a standard is a classic example of herding cats.

[mommadona]

"Those who toil in vast and lonely data mines quickly learn that structured data is no one's friend. Most data does not talk easily or work cooperatively with other data. Yoking database tables together is painstaking, difficult, and often requires hacks and tricks and legerdemain worthy of Houdini. Issues of timeliness, reliability, and performance stymie nearly every ambitious data development effort. At the end of the day, the week, the month, and the year, the creation of useful and powerful database applications requires careful, intelligent attention to the details of the data. Working with databases is artisanal, not mathematical. It is like brewing fine craft beer, not building the Starship Enterprise."

YOU BETCHA.

Biggest need in this day and age - LIBRARIANS who know how to 'get it together'

[plebeianswillrevolt]

Easy to sit on the sidlines and criticize, Mr. Dick Cheney wannabe.

[ZenBastard]

Even easier to sit in your arm chair & criticize, Mr. Bill O'Reilly wannabe.