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A Look At the Wolfram Alpha "Search Engine"

Posted by kdawson on from the computational-knowledge-engine dept.

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."

8 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Why even mention Google?? by barius · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The whole article was an advert for Google. The W|A search engine has nothing to do with the kind of problems solved by the Google algorithm so why does every article about it seem to bring up Google on every other line??

  2. McDonalds & Automation? by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Quote
    What happens when McDonalds is staffed solely by robots. That would be pretty damn cool actually. They work for the price of electricity, maybe we can get the price of a cheeseburger back down to $0.25 :D
    end Quote

    The most important question is however.

    Will a BIg Mac still taste like regurgidated cardboard?

    Think I'm biased? Well maybe, I plan on going through life without EVER setting foot in a McD's (That includes drive through's). What they describe/offer as food does not interest me in the slightest and NO, I don't work for a competitor.

    --
    I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
    1. Re:McDonalds & Automation? by Logic+and+Reason · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      ...I plan on going through life without EVER setting foot in a McD's (That includes drive through's).

      "Setting foot in a McD's" does not include drive-throughs pretty much by definition.

      What they describe/offer as food does not interest me in the slightest...

      Wow, good for you. What do you want, a medal? You're like those insufferable twats who brag about not owning a television.

    2. Re:McDonalds & Automation? by wisty · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You would have to add in the cost of the beef and cheese in the cheeseburger. I'm not sure that 25 cents is low enough.

    3. Re:McDonalds & Automation? by Muad'Dave · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I'm horribly addicted to the $1 double cheeseburgers. I think it's those little reconstituted oniony things.

      Some area McD's sell 'McDoubles' as their $1 cheeseburger instead of the standard double cheeseburger. What's the difference? The McDouble has one slice of cheeselike-substance instead of two on the double cheeseburger.

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  3. Re:Google started the ball rolling... by rubjo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Might I suggest, dear Anonymous Coward, some serious reeducation?

  4. Re:Google started the ball rolling... by srussia · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "IE (data analysis for human comprehension) and Google would make one fierce - and useful - blend"

    Perhaps, but the question is: Will it blend?

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  5. Re:Google started the ball rolling... by khallow · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I originally thought that was what he meant, but it didn't make sense in that context. I think he probably meant "Internet Explorer", Else the sentence is horrifically mangled. The latter never happens on Slashdot. QED (Quantum ElectroDynamics, of course).