Two months ago the math-oriented company Wolfram Research launched their new “search engine” Wolfram|Alpha. I write it in quotes because it is even more than just a search engine, it is what they would call a computational knowledge engine.
It is a web service that is based on the company’s flagship Mathematica. Using it as the back-end when processing all the data to get a statistically accurate answer. Unlike search engines like Google and Bing, which only search the web, Wolfram|Alpha has a wider range of functionality. It allows you to get data, statistics on for instance the US, calculate mathematical expression and then plotting them… and yes more.
Here’s some samples:
x^2 + 4x – 1
plot x^2 + 4x – 1
population of the US
sphere, volume = 5 dm^3
Stockholm
Methane
IBM Microsoft
weather Madrid
Michael Jackson
2% of $200
You can write even more advanced queries. Request IP-number lookup and more.
Try it yourself at WolframAlpha.com.
Wolfram|Alpha do not wish to compete with the other search engines that queries web sites.
0 Responses to “The computational knowledge engine”