Wolfram Alpha: Google Killer?

One week from today, May 18th, Wolfram Alpha will officially launch. Stephen Wolfram is the scientist behind this search tool. He wrote the book, A New Kind of Science, and is responsible for the Mathematica computational software.

So, is it a Google-killer? Danny Sullivan says, "Nope!" He goes on to say, "it should become an essential in anyone's search tool kit," but coins the service a "fact search engine." When you ask the service a question, it returns a tremendous amount of statistical information in the form of charts, graphs, etc.

Wolfram Alpha does face challenges such as interpreting search queries. Another problem is awareness. The product is geared toward the general public, but they have to be made aware of it before they can utilize it.

Stephen Wolfram says:

"We are not a search engine. No searching is involved here. The types of things that people are currently searching for have some overlap [with Google], but it isn't huge. What's exciting is that we have a whole new class of things that people can put into a input field and have it tell them what it knows."

To better understand how Wolfram Alpha works, check out Danny Sullivan's perspective, which includes a demo from Stephen Wolfram.

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