Wolfram|Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine Is Live
As compared with a traditional search engine, the newly launched Wolfram|Alpha web service is a computational knowledge engine, which uses algorithms for computing answers for users questions based on a large amount of data. For example, Google is only a lookup system – it does not contain all the answers to factual questions. Wolfram Alpha performs computations using the data included into its own internal knowledge base, it does not returns as results a list of links, but provides users the possibility to perform a classic web search on the popular engines like Google, Yahoo! and Live Search.
Wolfram|Alpha is free for anyone who wants to test its features: “This first run at testing Wolfram|Alpha in the real world is off to an auspicious start, although not surprisingly, we’re still working on some kinks, especially around logging. We’ll stay up for as along as it makes sense to test the system with external access and gather the data we need.”
If you will use a common keyword or keyphrase, Wolfram | Alpha will return this statement: “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.”, but the Tips for good results section explains the fact that the web service will give answers to specific questions, rather than explaining general topics.
For example, in the sample topics section, there are presented possible questions related to basic arithmetic, conversions of decimal numbers to another base, functions plotting, equations solving, derivative calculations and more. In the same time, the user is allowed to ask questions in many other areas, such as Engineering, Physics, Chemistry or Money & Finance.
Wolfram|Alpha responses are based on 10 trillion of pieces of data, 50,000 types of algorithms and models, as well as linguistic capabilities for 1000 domains. Its main goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.
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