Google remains the No. 1 search engine when compared to Yahoo and MSN, but several more specialized Internet search sites have popped up over the past year or two. Monday marked the public launch of Wolfram Alpha, the latest Internet search engine hoping to become the 'Google Killer'.
Google and other major search engines take a user's search query and scan keywords before offering thousands of different possible results. Wolfram Alpha, however, takes a search query and scans its own databases looking to give users a specific answer.
For example, someone wanting to learn more about the end of World War II in Europe might search for: "When did Adolf Hitler die?". A traditional search engine could display thousands of results. Most of the links on the first search results page would lead you to the right place, but it might be difficult to find an immediate answer.
The same search query in the Wolfram Alpha resulted in the following response: "Result: April 30, 1945." The result also offers a time difference from today's date, if there were any holidays observed on April 30, 1945 in the U.S., and what time the sunrise and sunset in your local area was on that day.
It takes a bit of getting used to the new query format, but I sort of like Wolfram Alpha. I like how it is focused on presenting information in a fast, clear format that requires very little work from Internet users. There are still a lot of phrases that need to be included in the search query, as I typed in several questions, including "When was Saddam Hussein captured?" and "When was Saddam Hussein executed?" without the search engine understanding Saddam Hussein.
However, a search of "Saddam Hussein" yielded his full name, date of birth, date of death, and his place of death.
I doubt Wolfram Alpha truly is the next big thing to challenge Google, but I do think it's a useful web site if a person is doing research and wants to find direct answers. It'll be especially useful for university students who are working on research papers, as students could save large amounts of time scanning through search results presented by Google.
I recommend you give the search engine a try, and play around with a few different search entries. I actually found it somewhat amusing trying to see how the service works, and the simple search results are very easy and fast to read.
