This Sounds Promising

[john]

Wolfram Alpha

It will be interesting to see if it lives up to its promises.

[Rik]

It could. I wonder if Google will aim to strangle it at birth, John?

[Glenn]

Or buy it

[Rik]

Unless MS think it might give them an edge and get there first.

[Sebby]

Interesting stuff. Personally, I can't see anyone really moving away from Google now, even just because of the familiarity factor. I think I read this morning that the Google brand is worth the most of all brands.

[Rik]

A billion dollars, wasn't it? Amazing achievement really.

[Sebby]

Something like that. It is quite an achievement.

[Gary]

I like to be able to look over a list of possible answers and I always end up off looking for other things, I can't see myself straying far from Google even though its evil, but the idea is interesting

[Gary]

A billion dollars, wasn't it? Amazing achievement really.

I bet the kids who sold youtube to them for shares are happy

[Rik]

I think you're right.

[Gary]

I think you're right.

I also bet the sold a few as well, how many did they get? Fourteen million dollars worth wasn't it? That seems high, but until I have more coffee I'm not going looking 

[Sebby]

I like to be able to look over a list of possible answers and I always end up off looking for other things, I can't see myself straying far from Google even though its evil, but the idea is interesting

Yep, well put.

[john]

From what I understand it works differently to Google in that it is supposed to compute an answer directly rather than simply displaying a list of web pages which may or may not have the solution to a question.

It seems to be mainly useful for scientific data rather than a general seach engine to rival Google.

I envisage that it may be difficult to phrase questions correctly in order for it to return a meaningful and correct answer though.

[Rik]

Be handy for all those undergrads looking for essays.