Wolfram Alpha - the Star Trek Computer Coming to Life

There’s a new search engine out, Alpha, which, instead of finding sites discussing the topic, as does Google and other search engines, actually attempts to deliver answers. Stephen Wolfram, the developer of Alpha says that it "makes it easy for the typical person to answer anything quantitatively.” Wolfram does not consider Alpha to be a Google competitor:

“We are not a search engine. No searching is involved here,” he said. “The types of things that people are currently searching for have some overlap [with Google], but it isn’t huge. What’s exciting is that we have a whole new class of things that people can put into a input field and have it tell them what it knows.”

It still has many problems as will be discovered but, whatever its problems it is an interesting first step to developing a computer that will provide answers – and give source material. I wish it well.

If you want to know more:

• Impressive: The Wolfram Alpha “Fact Engine”
• Steven Levy on the Answer Engine, a Radical New Formula for Web Search