Reaction: Wolfram Alpha splits opinion

 

Gallery

By Barry Collins

Posted on 18 May 2009 at 14:54

The much-anticipated Wolfram Alpha went live over the weekend - and the "computational knowledge engine" has certainly divided opinion amongst early adopters.

Some are flabbergasted by the breadth and detail of the information being presented; others are struggling to find a search query that Wolfram Alpha actually understands.

Here's a selection of the early reaction to Wolfram Alpha:

REGULAR PC PRO CONTRIBUTOR, JACK SCHOFIELD, ON THE GUARDIAN:

Wolfram Alpha is no ordinary search engine, but occupies a space somewhere between Google and Wikipedia. Whether it will ever be as successful is open to doubt. However, if you need exactly the sort of answer that Wolfram Alpha is designed to provide, it's already a terrific resource.

The site's slogan says it's a "computational knowledge engine" and the search box has an equals sign at the end. It's probably most useful as a "homework engine" - though one that is focused on science, engineering and maths, rather than the arts and humanities.

PC PRO'S DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH ON THE PC PRO BLOG:

Obviously it was never going to slay Google on its first day. But after watching Stephen Wolfram's pre-launch screencast I did believe it was at least going to be a credible alternative information source, offering authoritative and structured answers in a way no traditional search engine could aspire to.

Sadly, now Wolfram Alpha's here it turns out that it doesn't bloody know anything.

REACTION FROM THE PC PRO FORUMS:

Very impressive - just asked it "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" - and it told me! Less impressive; I asked "how do you make beer" and got a "don't know what you mean" - pike_by_nature

I think the stupidest thing was the comparisons with Google. It's a web-app. It's a pretty stunning achievement, but please don't call it a search engine - c6ten

Asked it "What is the meaning of life?" And it answered "42". Is Wolfram Alpha, Deep Thought in disguise? - pbryanw

REACTION FROM PC PRO'S TWITTER FOLLOWERS:

Cack (I would suggest you look it up on Wolfram Alpha, but it doesn't know what it is - no surprise there then) - happygeek (aka PC Pro Contributing Editor, Davey Winder)

Great but (almost wilfully) misunderstood. Why you would enter "cack" into a computation engine is beyond me. Alpha=/=Google - jonhoneyball (aka PC Pro Contributing Editor, Jon Honeyball)

Good if you're a scientist/researcher wanting stats, limited usefulness otherwise, for now at least - simonbarker

Terrible. Almost always doesn't understand queries - GwangjuSam