This week marks the launch of Wolfram|Alpha, which claims to be an intelligent search engine. Actually Wolfram|Alpha does not use the term “search engine”; instead it refers to its service as a computational knowledge engine.

How is this different?

Wolfram|Alpha generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links. It claims to have to ability to perform complex math calculations, complete comparisons, and offer detailed historical information.

Seems like a great idea - and definitely the evolution of online informational searches.

However…

After reading the Wolfram Blog leading up to this launch, I expected great things! I tried the service to compare a few things, and find out some basic information. The service produced NO RESULTS for the majority of my search queries.

Not a good first impression - but it is not all bad! For mathematical computations and basic comparisons, such as cities and countries - it was amazing!

I assume this service will get better as the database grows - so give it a try at www.wolframalpha.com and form your own opinion!