Google rival search tool launched
Updated on 18 May 2009
A revolutionary search tool that computes answers rather than pointing to related websites has been hailed as a potential rival to Google on the day of its official launch.
Wolfram Alpha searches its own databases of information and other sources to find the specific answer to a user's question instead of returning hundreds of website links which may or may not contain the information.
The system, called a computational knowledge engine, is the brainchild of London-born physicist Dr Stephen Wolfram and aims "to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone".
Dr Wolfram, 49, said: "Fifty years ago, when computers were young, people assumed that they'd be able to ask a computer any factual question, and have it compute the answer.
"I'm happy to say that we've successfully built a system that delivers knowledge from a simple input field, giving access to a huge system, with trillions of pieces of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms. Wolfram Alpha signals a new paradigm for using computers and the web."
Co-founder Theodore Gray added it was "an extremely powerful way of harnessing the world's knowledge". He added: "Now, anyone with web access can tap into that knowledge to find relevant information and discover new insights."
The free, online service is also designed to enable users to input their queries in everyday language.
While some industry experts speculate that Wolfram Alpha could rival Google's power when it comes to finding "cold, hard facts", others criticise it as US-centric and awkward to use.
Alex Watson, editor of Custom PC, said Wolfram Alpha was "not just a different version of Google". He added: "It uses a completely different system. Until now all the alternatives to Google have been built in the same way, they've just not been as good."
But he said Wolfram Alpha was "more like a database than a search engine" and added: "For certain types of queries, it's much better." Mr Watson added that the "how to" examples on Wolfram Alpha included complex maths and seemed to be aimed more at researchers, rather than members of the general public.
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