Wolfram search engine: Tomorrow's Google?

Wouldn't it be great if you could ask your search engine a question in the same way you'd ask a person — and get the precise answer you wanted? You know the sort of thing: "How many rivets are there in the Golden Gate Bridge?" Try doing that with a search engine like Google and you'll get pages and pages of possible answers to wade through. But British scientist Stephen Wolfram is planning to launch a search engine that he claims will revolutionize searching for information on the Web.

The new search engine — called Wolfram Alpha — differs from conventional search engines in that users can ask questions using natural language and the search engine uses "knowledge models" to bring you the right answer. But does it really work, and will it be a Google killer? Wolfram says "yes" to the first question and "no" to second, insisting that Google and Wolfram Alpha will co-exist and offer different forms of searching. We'll have a better idea of how well it all works when Wolfram Alpha goes live this May.

Via Wolfram Blog