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Everybody knows I love Google. In fact I wanted to name one of my children Google but my wife voted against the idea and pretty much told me I am not allowed to decide on anything related to matters concerning our children ever again.
Recently I discovered Wolfram|Alpha which is the coolest search engine since Google. Rather than try to compete with what Google does well (which is pretty much everything) it goes after a field of knowledge that Google has never really tried to explore; scientific and quantitative searches with specific answers. For example if you wanted to search for the average age of a citizen of Canada, you can use Google’s search and get hundreds of webpages or you can use Wolfram|Alpha and get the figure immediately. The site is in Alpha mode but the potential of the site is incredible. Statistics, measurements, mathematics and general information can be quickly obtained on the search page rather that searching webpages for the specific information.
The idea of sorting through documentation for the specific answer you need is something we have been waiting for since the beginning of the computer age. Wolfram is more like Ask.com than Google but with the information we want. Wolfram|Alpha’s mandate is to offer us searched of objective information.
The site still has flaws (which I have already found such as “What is Quebec Sales Tax” but it found “New York Sales Tax“) however with the help of those testing the site, Wolfram|Alpha should have the potential to be a great source and wealth of information outside the searches that Google already dominates.
