

See Wolfram Alpha in Action: Our Screenshots - vladocar
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/see_wolfram_alpha_in_action_-_video_and_screenshots.php

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jimbokun
I checked Google results for the queries in the screenshot.

"internet users in Europe"

Top link is:

<http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm>

One more click, but I think at least as much information in that page as the
Wolfram results.

"weather oakland"

Google has cute little icons for rainy/cloudy/sunny, current temperature and
conditions, and hi/lo for next 4 days. Probably more of the data a "normal"
person wants, in a more concise format.

"oakland"

First link is Google maps, more close in view. If you don't already know that
Oakland is on west coast of U.S., the Wolfram map could be more helpful. The
other information that Wolfram has likely saves some clicks to the Wikipedia
or official city of Oakland site.

"uncle's uncle's brother's son"

This is the classic kind of query that Computer Scientists obsess over
answering correctly, that is utterly useless to any normal human being. If
they think the kind of inference necessary to answer this query is also needed
for actually useful queries, they should have demonstrated the actually useful
query instead.

"water 550C 3 atm"

OK, if you want an engine to answer your Physics questions, looks like you
want Wolfram Alpha. Google did not have anything useful here.

"integrate x^3 sin^2 x dx"

Again, nothing interesting from Google. I wonder if it would be hard for them
to tack this on, if they wanted to. But then, they would likely get scolded by
all of the Calculus teachers that they are making it too easy for students to
cheat on their homework. :)

"bob"

I like how Google finds various common "bob"s, and divides the page to make it
clear which is which. Bob Dylan, Bob Strollers, B.O.B. as acronym for Bank of
Baroda. This is the kind of thing that is difficult to replicate without
watching the kinds of things the world actually clicks on when they search for
"bob."

So, if your question is physics or math (maybe other sciences?) use Wolfram
Alpha. Anything else, stick with Google.

EDIT: I see Techcrunch has a similar take away:

"The engine looks awesome for science students and researchers."

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/the-wolfram-alpha-
demo-...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/the-wolfram-alpha-demo-returns-
this-time-with-actual-footage/)

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pixcavator
You overlook the main difference: Alpha’s answers are structured. So, it may
be possible to build something on top of it, once API is out.

~~~
rythie
I could see a lot of value in have a consistent interface and features
(sortable columns, zoomable graphs, filters etc.) and reliable data sources.

Wikipedia articles are often condensed information that is on google, but the
condensing it's self is useful.

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anigbrowl
Looks like it has great potential. I hope there will be an API and am really
looking forward to trying it out. The dynamic parsing aspects of it are what
appeal to me. Some searches I plan to try when it's live;

(some company) revenue - and I hope to get graphs for past years, and a pie
chart for the current year, given that all that info is in a [public]
company's 10k filing.

Napoleon relationships - hopefully I should get a tree showing positive
affiliations with Josephine & others, negative ones with Wellington & others,
and ambiguous ones with with Talleyrand etc.

I can think of a lot of others, but I'm keeping my mouth shut in case they
have commercial mashup potential :-) I hope there will be an API or licensing
terms which offer a low barrier to commercial entry.

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rufo
I haven't watched the demo video yet... but looking at the screenshots, I'm
pretty sure I could see using this as a third knowledgebase alongside Google
and Wikipedia for those "I wonder how many..." or "What's the per-capita
indcident rate of..." type questions that come up.

Looking forward to playing with it whenever it comes out.

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axod
Google killer? hmm maybe Ask Jeeves killer would be more accurate. Only
problem being that Ask Jeeves died already.. Watching them build the racks out
was fun though.

~~~
callahad
Not a Google killer, but a Google augmenter. Like Wikipedia.

This is a completely separate service, and from what I can see, it's going to
absolutely rock in its domain.

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baddox
This article made me go back to Wikipedia again and figure out how the whole
"removed" nomenclature system of kinship works.

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10ren
_"uncle's uncle's brother's son"_

I'm always confused by familial relations. The diagram seems biased to
maternal grandparents (assuming square/circle is boy/girl) - an uncle could
also be on the father's side. Also, your "uncle's brother's son" could be you.

I'm pretty sure they discussed these alternatives (and probably deliberately
chose this very example as an excuse to do so.)

~~~
sachinag
What I want is what these relationships are in Hindi so I stop calling
relatives by the wrong title.

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cnlwsu
so I wonder if practical queries like "How do I implement pagination in a
django template?" will yield a graph also? Doesn't seem to be any examples of
them doing a search on something anyone will want to look at except for idle
curiosity. In that regards I think yahoo is closer to being the "google
killer"

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jmtame
I'm not a big fan of the name used for the product, but the tech is great.

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asciilifeform
The semi-closed demo was far more impressive, but I am not sure to what extent
it was secretly scripted.

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TweedHeads
Ask HN:

Q1. How much woukd you value Alpha today?

Q2. Should Google buy them right away before they get too big?

A1: $2B

A2: Yes

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skorgu
Aww, look at their datacenter, it's so cute!

Seriously, I can see why they're so cagey about when it'll go live, if they
let The Internets onto six racks of machines doing un-cacheable, potentially
expensive computations they'll pull a Cuil.

