WolframAlpha all set for launch

May 16, 2009 · Filed Under News · Comment

WolframAlpha is all set for it launch on Friday. Though it might not be a traditional web search engine, though in the opinions of many it might give a tough challenge to the hegemonic presence of the internet giant Google.

Named after the man behind the venture, British-born scientist and inventor Stephen Wolfram, the new ‘computational knowledge engine’ will, unlike Google, take a query from the use and crunch through its databases to return answers.

Google has dominated the most of the search business, clearly leaving behind the efforts from rivals including Yahoo! and Microsoft. Google dominates online search in US with over 64 per cent share of the market followed by Yahoo! (20%) and Microsoft (about 10%). Google uses algorithms to return a series of links to relevant websites for any of the search queries.

“The basic idea of WolframAlpha is very simple,” said the man behind the project, Wolfram in an online presentation of his venture. This is slated to go live for a test run at 8:00 pm Friday (0000 GMT Saturday).

Tags: computational knowledge engine, Google, Microsoft, serch engine, Stephen Wolfram, WolframAlpha, Yahoo