Stephen Wolfram, an undeniable genius when it comes to probably anything science, is said to have built an online masterpiece said to rival Google. Wolfram Alpha, is an ambitious online “answer engine”.
There’s a definite buzz for Wolfram Alpha’s nearing launch (available to the public come May 2009). Checking Wolfram Alpha’s traffic details, for a site that’s not even launched yet, it has a pretty decent number of visitors. Alexa shows that Wolframalpha.com is near the top 600k mark. Now I know Alexa is far from being accurate but it just gives you a ball park to gauge it.
But what does it mean, being an “answer engine”, and what is Wolfram Alpha’s real purpose?
A lot of people scoff at the idea, whenever they hear from other industry insiders that Wolfram Alpha is considered a threat to Google. Some people are actually cynical. What people should really, know is that Wolfram Alpha is not meant to just search for keywords, like other giant search engines.
In a nutshell, what is Wolfram Alpha? And how is it different to Wikipedia?
Stephen Wolfram wants Wolfram Alpha to be a “smart engine”, where people can ask questions, and can actually get factual answers. It is programmed to be totally different to Wikipedia, since it is not just an enormous database of articles.
How will Wolfram Alpha be different from Google?
Google mostly rely their results on the set of words that you enter. Most of the time, people get keywords rich results, and most of the higher ranking links might not contain answers to their queries. This is ok for people who are searching for products and services, but not so good for those who want to get straight-up answers.
For example, if you want to know the answer to “how many times has a Boeing 747 crashed?“, “what is the annual income of a middle class American?”, or “how much gas does a 1979 Piper model PA-28-236 need to orbit the world 14 times?”
Wolfram Alpha understands
The main difference between Google and Wolfram Alpha is that is understands. The computation that will happen in Wolfram Alpha queries is said to be much more sophisticated. We’re not saying that the Google algorithm is anywhere near simple and easy, but it lacks the certain real life, dynamic functions that Wolfram Alpha wants to reach.
Stephen Wolfram wants users to be able to “talk” to Wolfram Alpha, not just order it around, so to speak. Of course, Wolfram Alpha will never evolve to the EQ level of intelligence. It is meant to be a tool when it was being developed, and will definitely stay that way.
So to the big one, will Wolfram Alpha kill Google?
Well, it is way too early to tell. Only a few lucky individuals were able to talk Stephen Wolfram into showing them a special peak of Wolfram Alpha.
In terms of commercial supremacy, of course no one, and nothing, can surpass Google that fast.
But is Wolfram Alpha a threat to Google? If it performs anywhere close to what its developers are aiming for, I would say it’s definitely one to watch out for.
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Over the past 12 months my online ventures have really took off. Due to building my businesses and trawling through the masses of Internet Marketing information that’s available online, I’ve neglected my blog. Bad, I know but things are about to change.
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