Wolfram Alpha is a new type of search engine developed by a computer scientist called Stephen Wolfram. It’s being said it seems to be a different kind of search engine to Google – it’s a knowledge search engine (ask a question, and Wolf will give you an answer) — whereas with Google, you ask a question and you get a link to a “top ten list” of sites that *might* have what you need.

Those who have seen it in action seem to think it works and  “could be a game changer” if not a Google Killer (although remember Cuil lol).

Wolfram Alpha will be launching in May to the rest of the world. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard is hosting a webcast on Tuesday of the public preview with Wolfram and Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard in the US.

The sold-out Public Preview event will be streamed live on the web at 3PM EST 8pm British Summer Time this coming Tuesday here. I’m looking forward to playing with it – though there are a few (including Danny Sulivan) at Search Engine Land who has a bee in his bonnet about the launch.

  • Watch the webcast in QuickTime: http://harmony.law.harvard.edu/webcast.sdp (Note: Will not play in RealPlayer)
  • Interact in Second Life: http://tinyurl.com/s6tv4

Update – 17 May – Wolfram Alpha Clearly Not A Search Engine! It’s nothing like Google.

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