Wolfram|Alpha: Searching for Truth | h Magazine: "Kicking off our conversation, Stephen remarks that, “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t really a search engine, because we compute the answers, and we discover new truths.� If anything, you might call it a platonic search engine, unearthing eternal truths that may never have been written down before.”
Despite his disclaimer, Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine, in that there’s a one-line box where you type in a question.� The output appears a second or two later, as a page of text and graphics below the box.� What's happening behind the scenes? Rather than looking up the answer to your question, Wolfram|Alpha figures out what your question means, looks up the necessary data to answer your question, computes an answer, designs a page to present the answer in a pleasing way, and sends the page back to your computer."
No comments:
Post a Comment