Monday, May 04, 2009

Wolfram Alpha Search Engine Answers Questions, Looks Amazing [Search Engines]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2sJlvO7eelU/wolfram-alpha-search-engine-answers-questions-looks-amazing

Wolfram Alpha is a closed (for now) search engine that looks like an incredible hybrid between Wikipedia and Google's OneBox answers for simple, common search queries—at least that's what we've gathered from the demo video.

We haven't actually been able to try the site out ourselves, but it launches sometime this month, so it won't be long. Luckily the demo video embedded here walks through a lot of the possibilities this search engine offers, and those possibilities are mind-blowing—especially for a data lover. Unfortunately the video is a little blurry, so it's not the best possible look at the up-and-coming engine.

Don't think of Wolfram Alpha as a Google Killer, though, because frankly Google doesn't really have anything like it—except for maybe Google's new public data search, which, while impressive, doesn't look nearly as robust as Wolfram Alpha. (Then again, we'll have to wait and see how well Wolfram Alpha works when it gets in the hands of the public.) Either way, Google will still corner the market on most normal search. (We're not always looking for the kind of answers Wolfram Alpha provides when we hit up Google.) As for how this editor uses Google and Wikipedia, I'd actually imagine that Wolfram Alpha could be more of a Wikipedia competitor than a Google competitor.

Let's hear what you think of the yet-to-be-released search engine in the comments.