Wolfram on Wolfram|Alpha

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.