Wolfram Alpha: The future?

 When did the word “blog” first appear in English language? 1998.

How did I possess this random piece of Internet knowledge? Wolfram Alpha.

I first learnt about Wolfram Alpha in my Marketing Strategy class as few months ago and didn’t think much of it. I felt it was another one of those specialized search engines that had limited application. A few weeks later, I again encounter the name, but when I realized that it was a paid app for my iPhone, I again decided to ignore. I could not rationalize paying for an app for search engine, when I downloaded my Google app for free.

However, the name kept haunting me wherever I went and I succumbed to temptation and finally downloaded the app a month ago. I have been blown away by how powerful and intelligent the search results on Wolfram Alpha have been. It not just finds you what you are looking for, but provides solutions and curated data for your queries rather than providing links to pages, which may contain the words you are searching. The site uses a mathematical algorithm, which produces superior results or answers to user queries.

Since I downloaded the app, I now use Wolfram Alpha for hard queries or queries which require intelligent responses. I have noticed that it is slowly becoming my preferred search engine replacing Google. I also like Wolfram Alpha’s page layout better than that of Google’s. I cannot help, but imagine that Wolfram Alpha is the next big thing and a potential serious contender to Google. I do recognize that a whole range of factors, including substantial luck, has to work in favor of Wolfram Alpha to be considered a serious contender. The Search by John Battelle confirms that a firm needs more than just a good product to succeed in the competitive landscape for search. I do feel that Wolfram Alpha could give Google a run for its money given its superior search technology.