We have Google and Wikipedia… and then there’s Wolfram|Alpha.
Wolfram|Alpha’s long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.
Well, it isn’t really a search engine nor an online encyclopedia. I see it as a “facts calculator”, it shows the important bits and/or calculates stuff for you or “computational knowledge engine”, as they call it.
Wolfram|Alpha aims to bring expert-level knowledge and capabilities to the broadest possible range of people—spanning all professions and education levels. Our goal is to accept completely free-form input, and to serve as a knowledge engine that generates powerful results and presents them with maximum clarity.
As testing, I searched for “Hewlett Packard”, it showed the company’s stock history, performance, etc. Another query was “Marrakech to Hong Kong”, it showed the distance, flight time, path, and some backgrounder on both locations. I also tried “US$ 5,000 * 10”, it gave me the local currency conversion, exchange history and more.
It caters to a wide range of topics and the branches of Wolfram|Alpha is simply overwhelming for the little commoner in me. You can go from Mathematics, Physics, Date & Times, and even up to Computational Sciences, Life Sciences, Chemistry, or to the usual Music, Sports & Games, Colors and Culture & Media. The site is relatively young and it’s still growing. Nonetheless, it will be a very powerful system once it gets mature.
Posted by Tofu on Sat 05/23/2009 at 17:30:52 UTC+10 under Tech & Online.
Post URL: http://www.zai3p.com/blog/wolframalpha/
Tagged: computational knowledge engine, facts calculator, Wolfram|Alpha
