Wolfram Alpha searching for its niche

One week after a shaky debut, Wolfram Alpha is a lot more stable but is still having trouble defining exactly why information seekers should give it a try.

Any new search service that attempts to launch in the Age of Google is in for inevitable comparisons to the search giant. (And any search hopeful should also strive to learn from the unhappy launch of Google challenger Cuil last summer.)

Wolfram Alpha excels at computational queries, but many CNET readers weren't so sure what was in it for them.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

But Wolfram Alpha says it represents something very different, and that people should not treat its "computational engine" the same way they do Google's search box. CNET readers learned that the hard way.

We asked readers to give us their impressions of Wolfram Alpha following its debut last Friday, and the results were not good. Asked to judge how happy they were with the outcome of their searches, readers gave Wolfram Alpha an average score of 3.55, with 1 being "most satisfied" and 5 being least.

For the most part, readers were dissatisfied with Wolfram Alpha's ability to produce results for anything outside of a relatively narrow set of queries related to math, science, or statistics. Forty percent said they would not recommend Wolfram Alpha to friends, while 28 percent thought it was only appropriate for "serious data nerds." (Percentages based on 1,459 responses.)

"This might not be what Wolfram Alpha is intended for but I think people used to Google and Wikipedia will expect to get some kind of answer," wrote one reader. "I think you should always give them something, even if the query is a little out of scope."

Another reader wrote, "For the moment their data seems incomplete. They can't answer many questions on anatomy or prescription medication."

Wolfram Alpha does crawl the Web for information. But it is distinct from Google in that a human being on Wolfram Research's staff must vet any sources used to generate data, said Jean Buck, director of computable data initiatives. Of the 200 people or so at Wolfram Research working on Wolfram Alpha, just 25 or so are working full time on data curation, she said.

Given Wolfram Research's history as the developers of the Mathematica software, the company is laden with experts in sophisticated math and science topics, Buck said, and therefore it shouldn't be all that surprising that results for those types of queries produce far more useful answers.

The harder part is about to come, as Wolfram adds data related to socioeconomic trends and attempts to diplomatically handle issues such as how to categorize Taiwan. Just this week, Wolfram staffers had a meeting over what to do about the entry on Macedonia, which is a country recognized by the United Nations as emerging from the remnants of the former republic of Yugoslavia but also refers to a wider region that incorporates parts of Greece and other countries on the Balkan Peninsula.

All those decisions are made by humans, not computers, which means the number of people dedicated to reviewing data for Wolfram Alpha is going to have to dramatically increase as the company beefs up sections on sports, cars, and food, three priorities listed for the coming months.

Don't expect Wolfram Alpha to present information about the causes of the Civil War.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

This also means that Wolfram Alpha visitors should never expect to find results for queries such as "causes of the Civil War," Buck said. Right now, a query for "Civil War" on Wolfram Alpha returns a reference to a book called "The Civil War," which is essentially the text version of the interminable movie made by Ken Burns.

"Our emphasis is always going to be on the computational aspect of things," Buck said. Wolfram Alpha, at some point, will be able to verify the dates of the Civil War, generals who were involved, and the location of key battles, but won't provide information on the causes of the war or the thinking behind strategic decisions.

But even that will take time, meaning that Wolfram Alpha users interested in those types of queries are probably better off searching the Web the old-fashioned way. "People think it's replacing search, and it's not. It's a different thing, it's complementary to search," said John Ekizian, a Wolfram spokesman.

Some CNET readers grasped that after a few spins around the block with Wolfram Alpha. "I found nothing to like except the audacity of the attempt and the hope that it will improve," wrote one reader.

Another reader perhaps summed it up best: "It looks like it'll be good for something, but I'm not yet sure how it will serve me, an ordinary person. It's not readily apparent how to use it most effectively. It may just be a matter of a learning curve for a new way of thinking about inquiries."

[Tom Andersen]

The word 'Wolfram' in the title should be a clue that this is not for regular folk. But as a research tool for high school, university, grad school, financial, corporate reports, and yes simple enough even for professors it will shine. But not the place to type 'Maria Carey'.

[DJPoloMan]

You didn't spell her name right. It's "Mariah Carey". So technically, you're right. If you searched for Maria Carey you might not get any results.

[SJ2571]

Who said he meant the singer Mariah? He could've meant a real other person named Maria Carey for all you know. Seriously. Don't assume... it makes an ass out of u and me.

[perib]

Still, what should happen is that WA should respond "Did you mean 'Mariah'?" Like Google does. But it was never fair to compare this tool to Google search. It would be as fair to compare it to a spreadsheet.

[MurtazaNasir]

I think its going to become quite useful over time, but right now it does have some problems. I came across one randomly 5 minutes after reading this article. Its still mixing up data... or maybe its a mistake of the human researchers.
[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/1zmjlfm.jpg[/IMG]
Its best use now is i think side by side with google... like above.

[monkeyfun14]

There are many Francis Bacons in history it chose one because all it had was a name I don't think it's a glitch.

[MrZook]

I tried several searches that all yielded no results. I'm a physics teacher and wondered what the latest data was for majors in physics, or graduation rates of science majors... Wolfram wasn't sure what to do with my input :-(

[scw55]

Hi, if you need data about physics majors, physics in high schools, careers in physics, or anything about physics, please visit www.aip.org/statistics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is an umbrella organization sponsored by the 10 major physics societies, and our statistics group has been tracking data on physicists for over 40 years.

Thank you.

[jcalvarez2]

I went there the other day and typed "Modular Exponentiation", it said "Not sure what to do with your input"...for a technical tool that is depressing.

[mike_3172]

It's not a search engine, it's a computational engine!

[Goodbye Helicopter]

WolframAlpha is terrible.
They think the number 13 or the string 13 is a single Unicode code point and don't seem to be aware of Unicode having multiple encodings... some mystery on their end.
( to be fair they also thought 13 has a single ASCII value also)

[pentest]

Most unicode treat the lower values the same, especially latin based languages.

[atomicbomb156]

I love wolfram alpha, like the article said its great for high school and university students. i use it to study economies, businesses, etc. Occasionally I use it to help me with calculus homework. But it is a niche, since it deals with a limited range of topics. It is definitely not so much a search engine but a data engine. You use wolfram to look for answers. You use google to search for sites and links.

[ptezza]

I couldn?t agree more. I happen to find the app very useful for statistical information - like side by side comparisons of two different companies. Just try typing in the search term ?MSFT APPL?. I feel pretty certain that there are a bunch of ordinary people out there that will appreciate these results and how they?re visually presented (i.e. in a very easy to digest format ? or where you don?t have to go digging around to actual find the answer you?re looking for). It is very unlike google or wikipedia. The closest comparison that you can make to this app and google is when google attempts to give you direct answers to your queries at the very top of the search page and before any hyperlinks (like when you just type in ?MSFT? for example). And this type of easy to digest data is the sole purpose of this web app. To me it?s more like a swiss army knife for statistical information? and like previously mentioned, if you?re looking general info on Mariah Carrey (or however she spells it) you?re using the wrong tool for the job. Also worth noting, when you do type in popular people (or similar such things) wolframalpha does actually provide a hyperlink to her wikipedia entry in the related links section (in the right hand column of the results page). Don?t dismiss the usefulness of this app so easily.

[lonestarState]

Wolfram Alpha is reallly cool, but needs to do it's own research into producing some sort of result even if it is using the BuildaSearch API to produce something other than "it's" ground breaking statistical information.

[lollibuzz]

In order to appeal to a large variety of audiences, I agree with the comments made above: Wolfram Alpha needs to yield some sort of result for every variety of search. The question is, what should that result be? Dare I use Mariah Carey as an example? How about the numbers of records she sold, and possible statistics on the industry as a whole? There should be no ""Not sure what to do with your input" returns.

I also believe that niches usually come about by coincidence or accident. The public decides the best feature of a particular tool/software, and if the company developing that software recognizes the interest, and are smart enough to run with it and build it, I think there will be nothing to stop the success of that product.

[godseyesore]

Wolfram always disappoints when it comes to general application. He presents his ideas as universal manna from god but they always show to be arcane niche fuzz.

[jdeline]

A wheel is being reinvented by Wolfram. Check out Doug Lenat's Cyc project and his corporation Cycorp at http://www.cyc.com/. He has been working on making computers understand the world around them for 20 years. While at MCC in Austin, he employed dozens of "Cyclists" to enter common sense data into the Cyc database.

[PCsRfun]

I just gave it a bit of a try and so far I am quite impressed... If I want the melting point of sodium chloride, it gives me the melting point - no scanning through a list of pages to find which one has the information I want. It just gave me the data. I asked for the crystal structure of iron, and it gave me the answer along with a pile of other related data.
Sure, there were some things that it didn't know (such as the LD50 of arsenic) but it's a great start. I'll be sure to recommend this to all my students next fall (I'm a chemistry prof).

[ilsthey]

As many have said, when Wolfram Alpha has the data it can give very impressive results. My favorite example is this:

Speed of light in miles per second / circumference of earth

Try that search in Google and see what results you get.

But I do think they need to grow there data and it is an open question on whether they can grow it fast enough to satisfy enough users to make a go of it. I was a bit disappointed that Wolfram seems to lack basic data such a US Census data which I would think would be a natural for a Computation Engine such as this.

Their interface seems a bit buggy as well, but that can also be improved over time.

But will they get enough time, that is the question.

[queticomn]

Its in alpha stage of development give it a break. Also i don't think its meant to compete with google.

[arcanus2]

No offense, but I do not think putting "Alpha" in your product brand always makes it a product in alpha development stage.

[pentest]

The terms alpha and beta no longer have any real meaning, it is a marketing term.

[monkeyfun14]

@pentest

Alpha and Beta still have their meanings.

Google just turned it into a marketing thing with their products.

[pentest]

And MS, and apple, and ...

[jake3373]

Math feature is awesome - try typing in things such as x^2=9 and it will give you 3. Very smart.
Type in a y-intercept form of a line like y=3x+5 and it will give you a graph with the correct line.

[Norseman]

This thing would make a number cruncher have an orgasm. Seriously.

[jarkoet]

This has been a godsend in compiling the technical information for an MBA paper I am writing.

[zhakidd532]

I found it interesting. I put in the most random equations I could think of and it solved them in like 2 seconds. You can tell there are still bugs to be worked out. But eventually it's going to be very, very, very useful.

[Rick Mc Callister]

I asked 10 questions in 10 different areas and got a blank page every time. It's worse than worthless because it wasted my time.

[ark_v2]

Did someone actually got a correct answer? (you know, other than Queen Elizabeth's age)