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Wolfram Alpha vs. Google — Results Vary
wjousts writes "Technology Review has an article comparing various search results from Wolfram Alpha and Google. Results vary. For example, searching 'Microsoft Apple' in Alpha returns data comparing both companies stock prices, whereas Google top results are news stories mentioning both companies. However, when searching for '10 pounds kilograms,' Alpha rather unhelpfully assumes you want to multiply 10 pounds by 1 kilogram, whereas Google directs you to sites for metric conversions. Change the query to '10 pounds in kilograms' and both give you the result you'd expect (i.e. 4.536 kg)."
I've never heard of Wolfram Alpha, so I googled it. Then I thought: If this new search engine becomes popular, will I still use google as a verb? I'd hate to wolfram stuff.
Google be damned, Library index cards suit all my needs!
Also, get off my lawn. Damn kids. And if you ball lands in my yard again, you're not getting it back.
Does Wolfram do any better than google when you type "hot free porn videos". Will you be able to type "teenage pussy" without being bothered by some old deary who wants to tell you about the longevity of her pet cat?
"I RTFA and, even when searching for answers, Google moped the floor with Wolfram Alpha."
Sure, Google mopeds. But Alpha scooters.
Each system is a tool.
So is the average user.
(due up tomorrow)
Some might say that Mathematica, the source of my fortune, and A New Kind Of Science: A Brief History Of My Stupendous Intellect were ambitious projects. But in recent years I've been hard at work on a still more ambitious project: Wolfram Alpha.
Fifty years ago, people assumed that computers would quickly be able to handle all kinds of question. It didnâ(TM)t work out that way. But a few years ago, I realized that I was finally in a position to do it myself. As I'd always expected I'd have to, of course.
I had the crucial ingredients: Mathematica and A New Kind Of Science. And my truly massive intellect. With these, I had a language to compute anything and a paradigm for complexity from simple rules. And my spectacular brain, which is much more spectacular than anyone else's, as proven by me being rich as well as smart. Which is smarter: to be a professor, or to have all the professors pay you tribute? I think my net worth makes the answer clear.
But what about all the actual knowledge that we as humans have accumulated? I realized we needed to make all data computable as knowledge. Of course, natural language is incredibly difficult for computers. So we added the secret ingredient: my jaw-droppingly spectacular brain, undoubtedly the largest on Earth.
I'm happy to say that with a mixture of clever algorithms and heuristics, linguistic discovery and curation, and some casual Nobel-worthy theoretical breakthroughs in my spare moments, we've made it work. Itâ(TM)s going to be a website with one simple input field that gives direct access to my superlative brain, in its planet-sized glory.
Our pre-launch testers have been at work as well, and I'm dealing with all manner of queries in spare thought cycles while I jetset around the world, wowing the pitiful minds of gorgeous international supermodels before impregnating them with my superior genetic material. Let's just have a look at the query stream: "tits" "goatse" "mary whitehouse naked" "4chan" "tubgirl" "2girls1cup" "ITS OVER 9000 LOL" "desu desu desu desu"
ERROR ERROR ERROR ####(^^(856*##&##
NO CARRIER
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Well, I wouldn't switch away from Google no matter what.
Really? No matter what? What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google? Would you still use it? What if every Google search came with a free virus and key logger? Would you still use it?
Saying "no matter what" is always silly, no matter what.
Wow, is it really that wrong?
For the Americans in the audience, 1 £ kg = 3.33 $ lb.
I recommend not saying this aloud for it sounds very silly.
What if someone points a gun at you and tells you to say "no matter what" or he will shoot you? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I was talking to a guy who asked me, in translation, "Brothers, sisters, one, two, three?" It took me a while to figure out he wanted to know how many siblings I had.
Surely the possible semantic meanings for those set of words is fairly limited?! Either he was asking you how many siblings you had, or he was attempting to start a jazz band, spontaneously.
Google mopped the floor with Wolfram Alpha
Yeah, well duh! Wolfram is in alpha, but Google is in beta.
You need to stick to factual, well-defined questions; such as, "what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
What if someone points a gun at you and tells you to say "no matter what" or he will shoot you? :-)
Such an idiot will probably shoot you no matter what.
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google?
The Maps anime had a super-weapon called the "Sacrifice Cannon." It was a BF-blaster/raygun powered by the sheer cruelty and evil of destroying a pile of Pikachu-like creatures in a big blender. Yes, really, not making this up, that's exactly what it was, a big-ass raygun hooked up to a blender full of quasi-Pokemon.
How about Google Maps (anime)? I'd support Google implementing a holographic babe who is actually the ship's computer for a starship shaped like a huge-ass metallic winged babe. Then again, maybe we could have the "Will It Blend" guy in a black eyepatch as some sort of James Bond villain?
Wow. Mrs. Kin is really a perv...
Actually, just now the first Google result for "How do I compute the coupling coefficient for a transformer given the data sheet parameters?" is this thread. ;-)
I suppose it's approximately one person in twelve? Shouldn't be significantly different from Libras, Leos or Geminis.
Nah. It is all in the attitude.
The funny part is my mind was fixating on locations, so I read your sentence as "Shouldn't be significantly different in Liberia, Laos or Germany." I was thinking "WTF is he talking about?" :-)
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Can you make that into a car analogy for me?
'expertsexchange' (WFT? 'expert sex change'??)
You think that's bad, try this one.
The enemies of Democracy are