Science Fiction Becomes Reality

I came across Wolfram Alpha from a rumor that Microsoft’s search engine Bing would present some of the content that Wolfram Alpha generates. Then, Time magazine had Wolfram Alpha as one of its top 50 websites.

So what, exactly, is Wolfram Alpha? It’s not a search engine per se. It doesn’t provide links to answers. It GIVES you the answer that it calculates or finds in its database.

According to Wolfram Alpha

Our goal is to accept completely free-form input, and to serve as a knowledge engine that generates powerful results and presents them with maximum clarity.

From simple things like converting measurements to plotting out mathematical equations to the weather any place on any given day to geographic data on major cities to the fish production of France. Or even a comparison of the fish production of France to that of Poland.

It’s definitely worth watching the video on the site.

What else? A quick look at companies by their stock symbol, or comparisons of companies. Calculate mortgages. Find nutritional data of foods or add them up for a meal. Everything from mortality data to quantum physics.

I did find an article that says it falls short on baseball statistics, but this tool almost makes me giddy with delight!

Let me explain. The Internet has three basic uses – email, information and shopping – in that order. The information aspect has grown exponentially but finding that information can be a chore.

Read more.
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