Anyone use Wolfram|Alpha yet?

Bob Lee (QSC) · #1 05-22-2009, 05:54 PM

What do you think? How do you like it? Any tips or tricks?

(BTW, it's at www.wolframalpha.com.)

funkalicious101 · #2 05-22-2009, 06:00 PM

They seem to like it over at reddit, but I have no idea what it actually does...

bongomania · #3 05-22-2009, 06:53 PM

Wow! Impressively ambitious. It didn't know what to do with my query "difference between resistance and impedance", and it defines the two words identically, so I gather they really are emphasizing computable data rather than conceptual encyclopedic information. Looking up "ohm's law" they have a little calculator for it right there.

Honk'n_down-low · #4 05-22-2009, 07:05 PM

Cool site - hear Google is ramping up something similar - of course they claim better.

blizzard · #5 05-23-2009, 09:55 PM

I've used it a bit, if you can watch the screencast intro.

It's a "knowledge" engine, you can compare two different values together... right now it seems ok but I think it will get better as they compile more data into it.

cdef · #6 05-24-2009, 10:27 AM

The databases are mainly science-oriented. Math works, as you'd expect. Musical theory, such as scale/chord analysis, is functional. But when I enter "Palestrina" and "Bach" I get two obscure geographical locations, not the two composers, which would be much more reasonable. "Plek" brings up a human gene instead of the Plek machine. Most non-scientific queries only result in the response "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input". - It's early days, though, and it can only get better.

Perhaps they could implement a drop-down menu to state the purpose of the query, with options such as:

Attribute
Compare
Date
Define
Describe
Explain
Extrapolate
Locate
Solve (for)

and so on. This would help focusing the search, so that the algorithm needn't draw a blank when the purpose and the domain of knowledge are unclear. They should also have a disambiguation feature like Wikipedia has.

Kenbuntu · #7 05-24-2009, 10:34 AM

Ok, I confess, I'm an idiot...what does this do? So far I'm getting that if you ask it a question it answers you? But I tried a question and it says it doesn't know what to do with my input?

cdef · #8 05-24-2009, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenbuntu

... what does this do?

It's a new breed of search engine that attempts to synthesize a valid answer to most any question, instead of just throwing up a load of more or less relevant web pages.

Kenbuntu · #9 05-24-2009, 10:50 AM

Haha, I asked it "What is Talkbass?"

It's response:
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.Tips for good results »
Did you mean:What is jackass

fdeck · #10 05-24-2009, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenbuntu

Haha, I asked it "What is Talkbass?"

It's response:
Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.Tips for good results »
Did you mean:What is jackass

I haven't gotten anything but that response from any question that I have entered so far.

Kenbuntu · #11 05-24-2009, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

I haven't gotten anything but that response from any question that I have entered so far.

It seem's a bit useless right now. I mean, anyone with a brain (or even with a calculator) could figure out what 25% of 250$ was...But nonetheless, this could redefine intranetz searching.

fdeck · #12 05-24-2009, 01:06 PM

I am sure that if we went back and tried to use the earliest form of Google, it would seem like a joke too. It is the best because they attracted enough revenue to put the time and effort into making it really work.

Whether Wolfram Alpha is any good will await a similar trial. Stephen Wolfram is a really bright guy, but he also believes that the universe is a giant computer, and he doesn't have much more than that to say about how his search engine will be better than anybody else's.

Kenbuntu · #13 05-24-2009, 01:09 PM

I don't think im going to give up on this just yet. GOGOGOGO WOLFRAM.

**smperry** · #14 05-24-2009, 04:14 PM

I like it.