In the meantime, they just released a screencast demo done by Stephen Wolfram. It seems to be getting lost in the other news of the day but its pretty cool.
Am I missing something? Did the Mathematica inventor do a screencast with a multiplication error? Or is he using a video / mockup rather than an actual Alpha?
one thing that strikes me how can it logically say "the gdp of france / italy" should be interpreted as "the gdp of france divided by the gdp of Italy" that makes no sense to me.... clearly the context suggests that I want to know the GDP of both countries side by side.
It looks incredible. I think Google are right to be concerned. Others should be too - take the mortgage example: it wouldn't be hard to integrate current deals on offer from mortgage providers.
One query I'd like to build is a TCO for a particular model of car based on running cost, service cost and the probability I will die in a crash which obviously limits my future earnings.
The success of WA is going to depend on the comprehensiveness of the data sets. If the user goes there and wants an answer and the topic of interest isn't in their dataset, then the user will revert to Google and wade through the results and read text to find the answers.
It doesn't appear to me that WA is searching text based information at all, rather these are tabular datasets that are carefully organized and queried to provide the user information.
Google is just looking for strings of text and especially strings of text from pages that have conformed to its requirements for SEO-ness leading to mostly marketing type information, where as WA is looking for facts and numbers.
I think most of the world doesn't really care about the kind of results they'll get from WA, but I don't care about that.
I think WA is a beautiful product. It isn't a google killer. Only those without a valid understanding of information would call it a google killer.
And Google Squared has nothing on WA. G^2 is just an attempt to steal WA's thunder. If Google would go to such extremes to hinder WA with their G^2, what does that say about Google's confidence in their product?
For too long, google has ridden on a history of good search results, but really, Google isn't much of an innovator. Most of their innovations were actually acquisitions. Eric Schmidt himself has said Google is not an innovator.
Here, WA is the innovator. Google is a me too and has been since their inception.
The success of WA is going to depend on the comprehensiveness of the data sets.
If you are correct, then WA can only get better and better over time. (Barring total incompetence.) So long as they can make good use of the failed queries, the user-base itself will guide what they include next.
Here, WA is the innovator. Google is a me too and has been since their inception.
The implication here that Google is the new Microsoft.
This is contrarian BS. In terms of SERP quality it was like discovering another dimension when web pages started being assigned value based on incoming links vs. on-page content. It might have been all acquisitions after they got rich off that, but it was a huge deal. I don't think it can be overstated in the terms of how it's affected the internet, it changed everything.
I don't know how I feel about a Friday night launch. On the one hand the weekend allows for fixing problems, but on the other hand they are doing a webcast and have been building publicity for more than a month.
I'm betting we'll see big-time video streaming fail when this happens. The people planning these events seem always to underestimate the bandwidth that is needed.
I'm betting we won't. Justin.TV has supported more than 700,000 simultaneous viewers already. As cool as I think Wolfram Alpha is, I don't think the launch will get that many viewers.
Spammy popups? Definitely not to my knowledge. If anyone ever sees anything like this, please do take a screen-grab and email it to me - [email protected]
I don't like the idea of a web cast for something like this, but if I were going to do one, I would use something like Hulu which is all the rage right now anyway. It is marketing, and Hulu has been getting a lot more air time than Justin.tv
[+] [-] programnature|17 years ago|reply
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2009/05/13/stephen-wolframs-int...
[+] [-] gustavo_duarte|17 years ago|reply
I wonder if they'd consider opening the system up for others to develop 'plug-ins' covering more knowledge areas.
[+] [-] martythemaniak|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] byrneseyeview|17 years ago|reply
Am I missing something? Did the Mathematica inventor do a screencast with a multiplication error? Or is he using a video / mockup rather than an actual Alpha?
[+] [-] abstractbill|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ErrantX|17 years ago|reply
Actually im underwhelmed by it :( which is sad.
[+] [-] ftse|17 years ago|reply
One query I'd like to build is a TCO for a particular model of car based on running cost, service cost and the probability I will die in a crash which obviously limits my future earnings.
[+] [-] pj|17 years ago|reply
It doesn't appear to me that WA is searching text based information at all, rather these are tabular datasets that are carefully organized and queried to provide the user information.
Google is just looking for strings of text and especially strings of text from pages that have conformed to its requirements for SEO-ness leading to mostly marketing type information, where as WA is looking for facts and numbers.
I think most of the world doesn't really care about the kind of results they'll get from WA, but I don't care about that.
I think WA is a beautiful product. It isn't a google killer. Only those without a valid understanding of information would call it a google killer.
And Google Squared has nothing on WA. G^2 is just an attempt to steal WA's thunder. If Google would go to such extremes to hinder WA with their G^2, what does that say about Google's confidence in their product?
For too long, google has ridden on a history of good search results, but really, Google isn't much of an innovator. Most of their innovations were actually acquisitions. Eric Schmidt himself has said Google is not an innovator.
Here, WA is the innovator. Google is a me too and has been since their inception.
[+] [-] stcredzero|17 years ago|reply
If you are correct, then WA can only get better and better over time. (Barring total incompetence.) So long as they can make good use of the failed queries, the user-base itself will guide what they include next.
Here, WA is the innovator. Google is a me too and has been since their inception.
The implication here that Google is the new Microsoft.
[+] [-] wmeredith|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lacker|17 years ago|reply
Come on, Wolfram Alpha was only announced a few months ago. G^2 was not developed in a few months. It's not like G^2 is a "response" to WA.
[+] [-] 27182818284|17 years ago|reply
I don't know how I feel about a Friday night launch. On the one hand the weekend allows for fixing problems, but on the other hand they are doing a webcast and have been building publicity for more than a month.
[+] [-] TweedHeads|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stcredzero|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justin|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] natch|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abstractbill|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ErrantX|17 years ago|reply
A coup for justin.tv though.
[+] [-] abstractbill|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmett|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 27182818284|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] catch23|17 years ago|reply