The tool will answer questions directly

Apr 30, 2009 13:25 GMT  ·  By
Pretty soon, people could get answers back for the questions they ask online, rather than a list of sites that might have them
   Pretty soon, people could get answers back for the questions they ask online, rather than a list of sites that might have them

Google was one of the best things that happened to the Internet, a large number of experts are not afraid to admit. But it would seem, others say, that the age of simply searching for terms on the World Wide Web is coming to a rather abrupt end. Demand from surfers now concerns having their questions answered as soon as possible, and not just to be referred to the most relevant page, which may or may not sport the results they desire. The Wolfram Alpha tool appeared as a direct answer to these demands, and Internet experts predict that, in no time, the instrument will become just as, or even more, popular than Google itself.

Developed by British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha is a free program that is able to directly answer queries, in that it provides the results as an answer, and not as a list of pages. The technology, which has been dubbed “computational knowledge engine,” may become available to the general public as early as next month, its creator has announced recently, quoted by the BBC. “Our goal is to make expert knowledge accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime,” Dr. Wolfram explained during a demonstration he held at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

The new tool is able to get its information from two distinct sets of places. First of all, it can rapidly scan through public and private databases, in an attempt to find the desired answer as soon as possible. Secondly, it can also centralize data from live feeds, including news aggregators, market prices, exchange courses, as well as weather information. Therefore, the results of the question will be answered in the most complete manner possible. Naturally, it may be that the system will make errors, especially during the first weeks or months of operation, but it will be eventually refined to a point where it may become very useful to Internet users.

“Like interacting with an expert, it will understand what you're talking about, do the computation, and then present you with the results,” Dr. Wolfram added. “Wolfram Alpha is like plugging into a vast electronic brain. It computes answers – it doesn't merely look them up in a big database,” Nova Spivak, who is the Twine web tool founder, told in a statement earlier this year. Thus far, trillions of pieces of data, mostly scientific, have been placed inside the system, but limited amounts of knowledge of music and pop stars also exist.