Comments on: Wolfram Alpha encounters 'snag,' launch could be delayed

Stephen Wolfram says a large-scale traffic simulation test failed, which puts the planned Friday debut of the new online tool in question.

[ddhboy]

Lame. Certainly won't help things when the service launches and everyone is disappointed because it isn't google.

[wjsteele]

Wow... for a planned launch just hours away, you'd have thought that testing would have been done much sooner and a contingency plan would have been in place in case of a problem arising from that testing.

[monkeyfun14]

How else do you build up the hype machine?

[sdf0013]

I don't think they expect to be Google. I'd use this server to find information, not a site that "could" have the information I'm looking for. That's the problem with Google. The result "could" have the answer. At least the way I've been using Google, but I'm no self proclaimed expert.

[ddhboy]

Well, Wolfram has just finished their open test, and I'm coming away knowing what I suspected, this thing is impressive, but its not google. IE, you aren't really going to find much of the day to day information that you use google to search for. This thing is just pure hard numbers. If I google say Electronic Arts, I'd get stock quotes for EA, a link to their website, to their wikipedia page, to fan sites discussing the company, news reports involving them, etc. If I do that with Wolfram, all I'll get is information about their stock and the company finances and a link to the official website.

That said, Wolfram sort of feels like a google labs project rather than a full pledged search engine, and that's pretty much all it is, a beefed up combined version of multiple google labs and google search operations.

[egockel70]

soft launch, anyone?

[JordsForShores]

i want to know how fast the ISS can cross the golden gate bridge... NOW!!!

[xhable]

wolfram alpha finally launches.. only to be blown away by a tornado :p

[ady1689]

Wolfram Alpha vs. Wikipedia, please view in HD mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmLWf8EoFg&feature=email

[Techstuf]

Wolfram Alpha would, at this juncture, perhaps be better termed:

"Incandescent filament beta"

lol

needs work