Firefox add-on puts Wolfram Alpha in your Google

If you've casually been using Wolfram Alpha, but don't want to give up your Google addiction reliance, there's hope for you yet. A new Firefox extension lets you keep using Google, while showing Wolfram Alpha results on the side of the page.

I've been using it all morning and it's a nice addition if you're a search enthusiast. Your Google results come in just as quickly as they usually do, while the Wolfram ones catch-up on the side. This makes it a good way to test some of the limitations of the new search engine, as it only covers so many topics. My favorite use for it is to pull up nutritional information for fast food and cast lists for movies. Both are activities that usually require going off the results page to find the information I was looking for, whereas Wolfram simply grabs and displays it in an orderly fashion.

The only drawback I've run into with this extension is that it can clip off the bottom of the Wolfram Alpha results unless you've got Google set to show 20 or more search results per page. On some of the longer entries this this means you're not seeing potentially important information. On the plus side, there's a quick link to redo the search in Wolfram Alpha, in a different browser tab.

Note: This extension is experimental, which means you need to be registered with Mozilla's add-ons directory to install it in your browser.

Installing the Wolfram Alpha Google extension for Firefox adds Wolfram Alpha search results next to every Google query.

(Credit: CNET)

[monkeyfun14]

Wouldn't this potentially slow down Google navigating?

[Angmarr]

ya my question Also?.

And It's not like you get results for everything you search for on Google from Wolfram, so I added Wolfram to my search box instead!

http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html?name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wolframalpha.com%2F
seems more useful for me @ least, nevertheless neat addon lol

[Josh.Lowensohn]

No it doesn't! The Google results load normally while the Wolfram ones load independently on the side. As you can see from the pic above, my search took 0.12 seconds to complete.

[odin84gk]

This doesn't work on every PC. I downloaded the addon and it did not work. (xp, firefox version 3.0.10). Did I miss a step (All I did was download, install, restart firefox, and tried a few google searches. It did not display anything special. I also tried enabling/disabling through the menus and the bottom ?toolbar?)

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Worked fine for me, although it could be your search term. I'm running the same version on an XP machine. Try a Google search for "Big Mac" and see what happens.

[mooseman99]

Yo dawg, I herd you like searching, so I put a search engine in yo search engine so you can search while you search

[kieranpcondon]

This extension has messed up by browser. Basically it has shifted my google results to the left so that the video preview you get on google (typically for you tube videos and other images) does not show anymore. The text has 'pushed it out'. This wont go away even after uninstalling and reinstalling (and uninstalling again). Does anyone know how to fix this?

[adamqkane]

If you're not up for installing the add-on, or don't use Firefox, here's a site I made which does side-by-side Google + Wolfram search results: http://www.googfram.com