Wolfram|Alpha has launched itself as a next-generation search engine that offers answers rather than just lists of websites. JOHN HARRIS kicks its tyres.

A just-launched search engine now offers answers rather than just a list of websites like Google.
Launched this month, Wolfram|Alpha’s long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately accessible.

Pitching itself as next generation of search engine, Wolfram|Alpha makes a big claim with a big target, Google.

Google is much more than the world’s most popular search engine: It is an advertising behemoth that is cutting a swathe through the revenues of traditional advertising media.

Last week, media reports circulated that Google Australia is close to hitting $1 billion in revenue, a figure that would make it bigger than advertising earned by this country's commercial radio sector.

Understandably, with Google as a global target, plenty of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists want a slice of that pie.

Rather than compete on Google’s terms, Wolfram|Alpha is attempting to create a new game.

Founder Stephen Wolfram is a genius who in the 1980s came up with the Mathematica computation system that is now used in areas as diverse as engineering, science, and financial analysis. That means he is backed by both cred and cash.

Wolfram|Alpha aims 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.

As the saying goes, why aim for the horizon when you want the moon?

So I put it to the test by typing “swine flu” into the query dialogue box: W|A gave me a one-screen summary of the current number of cases and fatalities, as well as a breakdown over the past week.
However, it is clearly a work in progress.

When I typed in “smallest US state”, it suggested Alaska for area and California for population. My knowledge of Michelle Shocked lyrics and LA rush hour traffic suggest these states are at the top end of their tables.

Google showed me the smallest US state is Rhode Island by area and Wyoming by population.
However, this is just one month into what Wolfram|Alpha claims is “an ambitious, long-term intellectual endeavor that ... will deliver increasing capabilities over the years and decades to come”.

The attraction of an answer-focussed search engine is quick and concise answers as the volume of Internet content increases to unmanageable levels: The question mark is how credible are answers gleaned from an imperfect source such as the Internet.

You can kick the tyres yourself at www.wolframalpha.com.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. You can view his website at www.johnharris.net.au.

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