Comments on: Wolfram Alpha search engine not a Google Killer

By: SamuraiMarine

SamuraiMarine — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:57:27 +0000

Well… I spent an hour typing in questions along the lines of what he did in that video, and none of what I put in there worked… so obviously he was working with a set of questions that he KNEW would give impressive answers.

Unless the engine is built to go out and hunt this information down by itself, I do not see how they will be able to build the database with that much cross-medium support.

By: Van Santos

Van Santos — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:30:55 +0000

WOW. Seriously even more impressive than what I had experienced.

Do you think the engine can make people think in terms of useful questions (or that pertain to the data input for the search?)

Thanks for that.

By: SamuraiMarine

SamuraiMarine — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:07:12 +0000

Here… I did not see that you had this… If they are able to achieve what they are selling in this video, then I WILL be impressed with it.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

By: Van Santos

Van Santos — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:57:58 +0000

I don’t doubt their ability to compete, as they have amazing quick and accurate, results, but in their current format I don’t see how they would take The Google on for *every day* searching.

Now, that said, they could expand their knowledge base and target more users, but if someone is searching for – say – a flash drive, WA won’t show them anything as of now.

This requires people to think differently, and that is what I doubt the most about the using public. It seems people just want to point and go.

You are right, something may change and they may actually become that google killer. Under the current format, I have doubts.

By: SamuraiMarine

SamuraiMarine — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:47:04 +0000

You know… not to defend their position, but it stands to reason that if enough people over a long enough period of time come forward and state that they are the “Google Killer.” One day, one of them might be right.

Who knows… WA certain LOOKS pretty… and there are people that might swear by it for a while, or forever… forever being subjective as long as it should last.

One never can tell.