Wolfram/Alpha Launches: Can It Break Out Of Niche-Ville?


ZDNet:

Wolfram/Alpha has launched, but after a few searches it’s an open question whether the search engine can break out of a narrow niche for select users. For many searches Wolfram/Alpha just “isn’t sure what to do with your input.”

“Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer. Based on a new kind of knowledge-based computing..”

Overall, Wolfram/Alpha reads like an encyclopedia. It’s handy at times, but the big question is whether the search engine can break out of niche-ville. Sure, geeks like the presentation and it Wolfram/Alpha can be handy for deep dives, but the average person will want some sort of results every time. In that regard, Wolfram/Alpha may be a disappointment.

And a lot of searches just don’t work well. A search on Wilmington Blue Rocks, a minor league team I used to cover way back when, gives me nothing. But if I want history on Wilmington or Delaware or the color Blue I’m set.

Photo by Wolfram/Alpha.

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