An invention that could change the internet for ever

[FOTD]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/an-invention-that-could-change-the-internet-for-ever-1678109.html


"Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as "how high is Mount Everest?", but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts."

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

"He also added that he would not go down the road of storing information on ordinary people, although he was aware that others might use the technology to do so."

"He added that to help with that Wolfram Alpha would be using Wikipedia's popularity index to decide what users were likely to be interested in."




"Everybody's got sumpthin' to hide 'cept me and my monkey" (Lennon/McCartney)

[Cats Cats Cats]

It would be nice to find an answer to a question instead of a webpage to click on that might have the information you want unless it has been updated.

[brianh]

I read something about this the other day, and I was a little skeptical about search engine start ups competing with google.  But Wolfram has a proven track record, they make the popular Mathematica application, a product that is quite sophisticated and has stellar reviews and ratings.

[mjchamplin]

Reminds me of this (disturbing) article I read the other day:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227062.100-could-the-net-become-selfaware.html
"Could the net become self-aware?"