Spring Break
Computational engine aims to challenge Wikipedia
Roberto Salome
Issue date: 5/22/09 Section: Ed-Op
Wolfram Research officially released a new search engine May 18 called Wolfram|Alpha, a new Web site that tries to give users information they seek directly. While it is not the first project that attempts to understand user questions, it is one of the most recent and is heavily hyped. Should Google, Yahoo, and others be afraid?
Wolfram Research is the same company behind the Mathematica software, a computer algebra program similar to Maplesoft's Maple. As quoted from the Wolfram|Alpha Web site, the search engine's goal is to make "all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone."
The engine focuses more on objective data that can be quantified and manipulated. A few moments with the search engine are enough to show how drastically different Wolfram|Alpha is from other programs.
In fact, Wolfram|Alpha's frequently asked questions page addresses the search engine issue. It states that it is a computational knowledge engine, not a search engine. Web pages are not returned when users enter searches. Instead, Wolfram|Alpha attempts to parse a user's input and return an answer. What makes it exceptional is its ability to interpret questions instead of commands that follow a strict format.
Entering "What is the weather today?" will bring up a page listing general weather conditions based on a user's location. Taking it a step further, the question "What was the weather on the birthday of Barack Obama in Miami, Fla.?" yields the impressive, yet expected, results.
Since Wolfram|Alpha is built with a math foundation, mathematical calculations can easily be computed. An input of "lim(x->0) sqrt(x^2-5) / (sin(x))" will effortlessly provide the limit that many calculus students may struggle with. Using a combination of values and mathematical notation, one can find answers such as the percentage of the world's population from the two most populous countries with the following query: "(China population + India population) / world population *100."
Wolfram Research is the same company behind the Mathematica software, a computer algebra program similar to Maplesoft's Maple. As quoted from the Wolfram|Alpha Web site, the search engine's goal is to make "all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone."
The engine focuses more on objective data that can be quantified and manipulated. A few moments with the search engine are enough to show how drastically different Wolfram|Alpha is from other programs.
In fact, Wolfram|Alpha's frequently asked questions page addresses the search engine issue. It states that it is a computational knowledge engine, not a search engine. Web pages are not returned when users enter searches. Instead, Wolfram|Alpha attempts to parse a user's input and return an answer. What makes it exceptional is its ability to interpret questions instead of commands that follow a strict format.
Entering "What is the weather today?" will bring up a page listing general weather conditions based on a user's location. Taking it a step further, the question "What was the weather on the birthday of Barack Obama in Miami, Fla.?" yields the impressive, yet expected, results.
Since Wolfram|Alpha is built with a math foundation, mathematical calculations can easily be computed. An input of "lim(x->0) sqrt(x^2-5) / (sin(x))" will effortlessly provide the limit that many calculus students may struggle with. Using a combination of values and mathematical notation, one can find answers such as the percentage of the world's population from the two most populous countries with the following query: "(China population + India population) / world population *100."
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