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)."

Comments

this just in

[Laebshade]

Karma be damned, but..

No one cares about a new search engine. Really, Google suits all my needs.

Re:this just in

[gailrob]

It is not a search engine but rather a factual answer database. It is quite impressive actually and I look forward to it's release as it will provide an awesome new resource for everyone. Especially students! Google - search for websites. Wolfram - search for answers.

Re:this just in

[vivaoporto]

I RTFA and, even when searching for answers, Google moped the floor with Wolfram Alpha. I know Alpha is still on its nest but, both sites evolving in the same rate they are evolving now, I don't see Google's dominance being challenged just yet.

Re:this just in

[wjousts]

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.

Re:this just in

[pwfffff]

"I RTFA and, even when searching for answers, Google moped the floor with Wolfram Alpha."

Sure, Google mopeds. But Alpha scooters.

Re:this just in

[wjousts]

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.

Re:this just in

[maxwell demon]

Saying "no matter what" is always silly, no matter what.

What if someone points a gun at you and tells you to say "no matter what" or he will shoot you? :-)

Re:this just in

[vux984]

Right, I'm a fanboy, it has nothing to do that no serious superior alternative is going to pop up within the foreseeable future.

Just before Google there wasn't anyone standing around saying, "Just you wait, any day now I predict a company is going to offer web search that blows yahoo and hotbot out of the water."

Any particular reason nobody couldn't improve on google? There are lots of big shortcomings in google.

When I don't want to buy something, but google a product for reviews etc I have to sift through piles of garbage 'price comparison sites', and sites with: "0 reviews... be the first to review it".

When I -do- want to buy something, I STILL don't want a pile of link-spam price comparison sites, mostly pointing to companies that won't ship to Canada anyway.

Google sucks for localized/regional or country specific information searches.

Googles image search could use significant improvements.

When I search for answers to technical questions (programming / troubleshooting / etc), I'll find a link to a question asked on some forum, with answers. If that doesn't help, I don't need the next 7 links all to be to other sites with the EXACT SAME question and answers. (Apparently a lot of forum sites spider each other and/or usenet for their content...) I don't need to see that. I also don't much need links to forums where the question was asked six months ago, and never answered.

And going off on a bit of a tangent... 'expertsexchange' (WFT? 'expert sex change'??) Someone should really properly spider that waste of space. Sure the information is there... but what the hell??? A question, 2 pages of 'obscured' answers, then four pages of advertising for expertsexchange to get answers... but keep scrolling, and there is the question again, now with the un-obscured answers, and 2 pages of bickering about how the stupid effing points should be awarded.

Sure the signal is there but the S/N ratio is through the roof.

For me, other sites have -already- supplanted google as superior ways to find certain types of information.

Wikipedia is for example is far more useful than google as a search tool to get information and links to relevant sites for a lot of topics. There's a reason an awful lot of top google hits simply take you to wikipedia... might as well cut out the middle man.

Re:this just in

[Pflipp]

Saying "no matter what" is always silly, no matter what.

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.

Wolfram stuff?

[Culture20]

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.

Re:Well, of course

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Each system is a tool.

So is the average user.

A comment from Stephen Wolfram

[David Gerard]

(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

Re:Conversions

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, is it really that wrong?

Damn British Units

[sakonofie]

For the Americans in the audience, 1 £ kg = 3.33 $ lb.


I recommend not saying this aloud for it sounds very silly.

Re:10 pounds kilograms

[D-Cypell]

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.