A Look At the Wolfram Alpha "Search Engine" 216
An anonymous reader points out a ReadWriteWeb piece on an hour-long demo of Wolfram|Alpha (which we discussed at its announcement). Stephen Wolfram does not like to call it a "search engine," preferring instead the term "computational knowledge engine." It will open to the public in May. "The hype around Wolfram|Alpha, the next 'Google killer' from the makers of Mathematica, has been building over the last few weeks. Today, we were lucky enough to attend a one-hour web demo with Stephen Wolfram, and from what we've seen, it definitely looks like it can live up to the hype — though, because it is so different from traditional search engines, it will definitely not be a 'Google killer.' According to Stephen Wolfram, the goal of Alpha is to give everyone access to expert knowledge and the data that a specialist would be able to compute from this information."
athe real question... (Score:5, Funny)
What role will cellular automata play in this, and will this also define the basic nature of universal mechanics?
Re:My god, it's full of... (Score:3, Funny)
Don't laugh, but this is one of the questions that Wolfram|Alpha will be able to answer easily. May 2009.
Don't bother... (Score:4, Funny)
... until it's in beta.
Re:This could work. (Score:3, Funny)
The thing is called "Wolfram Alpha", probably as in "Alpha and Omega".
Enough said.
Reminds of this Super Genius [wikipedia.org].
Re:athe real question... (Score:1, Funny)
What are you, a nerd?
The real question about this "Google killer", is how will it improve my porn?
For instance, will it be able to correctly find "all images related to a girl forced to drink thru a direct tube into her mouth the piss of another girl, with the piss harvested by use of naked-forced-tickling into a tube attached to her vagina?"
Optionally, I shall settle for "all images of lesbian girls in a group of 5 or more, with no makeup, and at least 1 licking the asshole of another".
If yes, then we have a Google killer.
(yes, I was looking around 4chan, can you tell?)
Wolfram Hart (Score:4, Funny)
Just announced: Corey Hart has joined on as the lead promoter of the new "computational knowledge engine." In related news they have now renamed the engine to signify the merging of their separate talents.
"I believe that Wolfram Hart has the ability to become the Alpha and the Omega of internet informatics" said Hart in a midnight press conference.
Not everyone is celebrating this new turn of events, however. A man only identifying himself as Angel has come out in opposition to a company who openly support those that wear their sunglasses only at night.
Re:I wouldn't hold my breath (Score:4, Funny)
Re:athe real question... (Score:2, Funny)
Wait for a month and ask this to Wolfram
Re:My god, it's full of... (Score:5, Funny)
I knew I should have looked this up before clicking submit: this makes Wolfram Alpha 1.25 million times more complicated than the entire universe, which Wolfram expects to be expressible in 4 lines [umich.edu] of Mathematica [metafilter.com].
Re:A New Kind Of "Living Up To" (Score:3, Funny)
So it'll be exactly like his book?
And can it deal with paradoxes? (Score:4, Funny)
Quick, somebody ask it what "the first number not nameable in under ten words" is!
Google Killer == Evil? (Score:5, Funny)
If Google does no evil and someone kills them, doesn't that then make the killer evil?
I don't know if I like where this is going.
Re:I wouldn't hold my breath (Score:3, Funny)
Re:McDonalds & Automation? (Score:0, Funny)
Hey! I have never been to a McD's *and* don't own a TV!
So there you go
Re:athe real question... (Score:5, Funny)
I have cloacal exstrophy, you insensitive clod!
Re:Google started the ball rolling... (Score:5, Funny)
Do I have to remind everyone how annoying it is to search for technical documentation for something vaguely Linux-related, only to find the first 30 hits are various forums with more or less clueless newbies discussing installation difficulties and the syntax of apt-get?
Gods yes. And not to mention that 80% of them are from 2006 or earlier.
Re:Don't bother... (Score:2, Funny)
Coming Soon: Wmail Alpha, Wolfram Code Alpha, Wolfram Earth Alpha...
Re:Google started the ball rolling... (Score:2, Funny)
Gods yes. And not to mention that 80% of them are from 2006 or earlier.
Uuuugh, so true. Worse still, about 60% or more of those newbie questions remain unanswered years after they were asked!