There has been a lot of buzz around Wolfram|Alpha, the “computational knowledge engine” that was unveiled earlier this week. To understand what this new engine is all about, you can watch this shorter introductory video, or watch the lengthy talk above by Stephen Wolfram at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. As you’ll see, Wolfram|Alpha isn’t really about searching the web. It’s more about about answering questions, making computations, or providing “facts about things,” as Wolfram says. When it provides answers, it’s certainly impressive. When it doesn’t (which happens not infrequently), it’s less so. If you’ve played with it, let us know your thoughts.
We at Bunnyfoot did a usability study on WolframAlpha and it beats Google for results and usability but users still advocate Google: http://bit.ly/iuhTF