Wolfram Alpha

T

thataway

Active member
This is a web site I just became familiar with. There will be a number of boating applications as it developes. Basically it is an attempt to catalogue and make useful all of human knowledge in one data base. This is of course impossible, but there are a number of useful parts which come from all segments of the world--and lots of fun to play with

Start with the explaination of what it can do as an introduction.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/ ... alpha.html

Then save the Site in your favorites:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/
 
It is certainly not a Google. But for example I had to drill a precise hole this AM, so I put the dimension in mm--and got the right size drill bit.

I would say that it is more useful for scientific notations--and of course will expand greatly with more input.

Travel distances are also very easy but they give straight line distances--not sure what projection is used.

I can invision developement of a boating database--for example distances by great circule route. Routing with ports etc.
 
I believe I read in the WSJ Google had offered to buy this company since they felt it was a threat to their predominance.

BTW: There's an iPhone app for wolframalpha :thup
 
I don't believe that Google tried to buy Wolfram Alpha--but they did emulate some of the computations in their own searchs. Since Nov. 2009, there has been an agreement with Mircrosoft Bing to use Wolfram Alpha information in certain spheres.

You have to remember that Google allows you to pay to have your search ranked. This is not a search engine, but more of computation using the knowledge database which is assembled in its memory. The more people who are contributing and the more diverse the applications, the broader appeal it will have.

The question is what will be the profit making potential down the line? Wolfram Alpha initially charged about $50 for its i phone app. It was reduced to $20 and most recently to $1.99, with refunds to those who had paid more in the past, upon application.

Steven Wolfram has sold some of his past applications, such as Mathematica, which has multiple practical applications. You have to hand it to someone who gets his PhD at Cal Tech at age 20--has to be at the top of the IQ pile!

It will be interesting to see where this does in the next 10 to 20 years.
 
Back
Top