Livin' the life...

“Wolfram Alpha, the latest alleged Google killer, is not a search engine. Rather, physicist and software entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram's long-awaited new Web project is a "computational knowledge engine." The difference is important. A search engine tells you where to find stuff on the Web. Type "box office goodfellas" into Google, and you get a list of links; it's up to you to figure out which page to click on to find how much money the Scorsese film made in theaters. Wolfram Alpha, which launched over the weekend, tries to give you a direct answer—ask it the same question, and you get the result without having to look on any other site: $46.84 million. The site's best trick is its sometime ability to make calculations on the fly. Type in "box office goodfellas + box office casino" and it'll tell you that the movies made a combined $89.35 million. Think of it as a calculator attached to a reference library—or your own personal HAL 9000.” (Full article)

Good article! Really clarifies Wolfram Alpha (esp. as it relates to the “vs Google” topic)! I must agree with the author though, even though the concept is quite cool, at times.. it is quite useless in what it “knows”.