Center for Teaching & Learning

What happens if you ask Google to compare the GDP of France and Germany, or ask it how many cows were in Vermont each of the last ten years? You may find a web page where someone has posted that information, or you may have to search for several sites and gather the information for yourself, or you may find some references to follow to do some research. Google is fantastic, wonderful, certainly but is not designed for those kinds of questions.

Enter Wolfram Alpha.
Wolfram|Alpha
Dr. Wolfram, of Mathematica and New Kind of Science fame, is launching a new type of web search engine that combines the symbolic representation and calculating capabilities of Mathematica with natural language processing. Or, to quote: "Fifty years ago, when computers were young, people assumed that they’d quickly be able to handle all these kinds of things. And that one would be able to ask a computer any factual question, and have it compute the answer. But it didn’t work out that way. Computers have been able to do many remarkable and unexpected things. But not that. I’d always thought, though, that eventually it should be possible. And a few years ago, I realized that I was finally in a position to try to do it."

Natural language processing is still in its infant stage and "for example we’re still very far away from having computers systematically understand large volumes of natural language text on the web." So, Alpha begins small with "trillions of pieces of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms."

Read more or watch for the launch later this month, here: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Comments

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Posted by: yahiali | May 11, 2009 6:00 AM

How cool is technology, eh? I'm thrilled at the implications this may have when thinking about research tools online. Not sure I believe that it will be the Killer of Google though:

http://www.sagerock.com/blog/wolframalpha-not-google-killer/

Posted by: greg | May 12, 2009 3:10 PM

i am really impresed it.
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Posted by: mariadev71 | May 14, 2009 2:57 AM

It's a new search engine that is supposed to let you ask questions using normal human language instead of just key words. Here's a quote from one of the links below:

"The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out."

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Posted by: MaxGXL Anti-Aging | May 30, 2009 10:12 PM

Well, i have never seen the search engine your talking about. I think it is better if i will check it out now. Thanks!

Posted by: jiel | June 4, 2009 12:01 AM

I am a nvidia fan all the way but i found this ATI video card that is said to beat an 8800gs or a 9600gso. The video card i originally wanted to get is the XFX 9500gt Alpha dog until i found the ATI Radeon 4670. Which one should I get. The main reason i want nvidia is for the applications. Is there a way to run CUDA on ATI or Physx?

Posted by: Resveratrol Ultra | June 12, 2009 6:16 AM

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Posted by: litigation news | June 14, 2009 2:30 AM

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Posted by: Florida public policy | June 14, 2009 2:39 AM

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Posted by: Houston Internet Marketing | June 27, 2009 2:07 PM

I like how the technology combines symbolic representation and calculating capabilities of Mathematica with natural language processing this will simply things and make results more accurate.

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Posted by: Aluminum Casting | July 7, 2009 4:05 AM

I see that WolframAlpha is more an alternative to default search engine. It related to more scientific approach in finding search results.

Posted by: Blog definition | July 9, 2009 2:08 AM

it is very interesting and nice.

Posted by: water meter | July 12, 2009 10:04 PM

interesting and nice.

Posted by: Registry Cleaners | July 25, 2009 4:05 PM

I like this search engine. The only issue is that one day computers will take away all our jobs...

Posted by: Kalia M | July 27, 2009 9:04 PM

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Posted by: Neila | July 27, 2009 9:12 PM

I can recommend using Google earth live in the classroom. I.e. it's very useful when teaching in geographic classes. Another sweet thing we started to use is Google docs for student projects. It enables students to work from home on shared documents. Since the teachers also got access to those files, we can correct and review them live or in-classroom in a plenary assembly. Students love it and it makes life much easier for us teachers as well!

Jane

Posted by: Jane | August 16, 2009 5:52 AM

This looks like a promising search engine.

Posted by: acai burn | August 28, 2009 4:08 PM

I agree Jane. I also use Google Earth in the classroom. I have my PC hooked up to a projector just for this purpose. It is much better than an old fashioned 2d wall map, I'll tell you that!

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Posted by: gapersblock | October 12, 2009 2:23 AM

Interesting info..would it be the next google?

Posted by: The Youth Fountain | October 19, 2009 10:30 PM

WolframAlpha is an excellent alternative

Posted by: premiership live | October 30, 2009 2:55 PM

Just been playing with WolfeamAlpha. Still in its early stages; but I like what I see.

Posted by: Electronic Dog Fence | October 31, 2009 4:47 PM

Google has nothing to worry about here.

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