Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
Wolfram|Alpha
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, Google was just two grad students at Stanford with a smart idea for search technology. Today's search whiz kid is Stephen Wolfram, one of the biggest brains on the planet — and he's got the new idea. Wolfram has developed a search engine that can actually understand your questions and try to figure out answers. It takes some doing to learn how to talk to Wolfram|Alpha, but it's well worth it. If the sci-fi writers are right and the Internet does gain a consciousness of its own someday, we'll all blame Wolfram. In the meantime, you can have a baby HAL of your own.