5,000 fans watch Wolfram Alpha go live … very slowly
Wolfram Alpha, the much-anticipated service from scientist Stephen Wolfram for computing the answers to factual questions, will officially launch on Monday, but its team is working hard to gradually roll the service out tonight. How do I know? I, along with more than 5,000 others, are watching the launch on livestreaming video service Justin.tv.
I imagine there will be many more than 5,000 people using the “answer engine” as it goes live over the weekend, and… Continue Reading
Roundup: Microsoft’s team-up with Verizon, Wolfram/Alpha’s demo, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Are Microsoft and Verizon teaming up on an iPhone rival? — That partnership may be the real source of rumors about negotiations between Verizon and Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Stephen Wolfram demos Wolfram/Alpha search engine — Larry Dignan of ZDNet says the “computational knowledge engine” (a search engine that understands your questions and computes the correct answer, rather than just digging up relevant web pages based on keywords) probably isn’t a Google… Continue Reading
Wolfram Alpha — it’s like plugging into an electronic brain
Scientist Stephen Wolfram has built a new engine, called Wolfram Alpha, that apparently can compute answers to factual questions more powerfully than Google.
Wolfram has just posted about the effort, which has taken years of working in stealth and involves more than a hundred workers. He explains the basics of how his “computational knowledge engine” works: You ask it factual questions (such as “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?”), and it computes answers for… Continue Reading