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sharathpaps
May 9th, 2009, 02:44 PM
Wolfram Alpha is supposed to be the next generation search engine. It goes online on May 18th. Check out this article :

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bigger-than-google-new-search-engine-unveiled/92193-11.html

SuperSonic4
May 9th, 2009, 02:45 PM
Looks pretty good but as us Linux users know the best doesn't mean the most popular

sharathpaps
May 9th, 2009, 02:50 PM
Looks pretty good but as us Linux users know the best doesn't mean the most popular

I guess so. I'm willing to give it a little time to become mainstream. Afterall, an algorithm that 'thinks' is better (read cooler) than one that does not.

gjoellee
May 9th, 2009, 02:51 PM
Looks good, although you also have www.keyboardr.com which is some kind of enhancement of Google.

pwnst*r
May 9th, 2009, 03:33 PM
i never understand how some people can't find what they're looking for via google. that stems from people using bad keywords.

besides, nobody is going to top google's search engine. at least not in our lifetime.

labinnsw
May 9th, 2009, 03:38 PM
I think I would need to keep a clean pants near by if I am going to check out a search engine that is supposed to be better than google. But I will do just that and chek it out when it comes online.

Kareeser
May 9th, 2009, 03:38 PM
i never understand how some people can't find what they're looking for via google. that stems from people using bad keywords.

besides, nobody is going to top google's search engine. at least not in our lifetime.

The problem isn't that people can't find information on Google, but the fact that we have to carefully word our strings to parse out irrelevant results. It's less so today, but early in the development of Google, Altavista, Excite, etc, you would have to write your search string thusly:

George AND Washington AND President NOT (City) NOT (D. C.)

Such formatting was so prevalent that I even catch myself using similar (although not as convoluted) tactics to get Google to show what I want, i.e.:

"George Washington" -city

Ideally, with Wolfram Alpha, and ideally with a search engine like Ask Jeeves, you'd only have to say:

"Tell me about George Washington", and it would automatically omit extraneous information about the city.

It's all about user friendliness. :)

pwnst*r
May 9th, 2009, 03:40 PM
The problem isn't that people can't find information on Google, but the fact that we have to carefully word our strings to parse out irrelevant results. It's less so today, but early in the development of Google, Altavista, Excite, etc, you would have to write your search string thusly:

George AND Washington AND President NOT (City) NOT (D. C.)

Such formatting was so prevalent that I even catch myself using similar (although not as convoluted) tactics to get Google to show what I want, i.e.:

"George Washington" -city

Ideally, with Wolfram Alpha, and ideally with a search engine like Ask Jeeves, you'd only have to say:

"Tell me about George Washington", and it would automatically omit extraneous information about the city.

It's all about user friendliness. :)

why type "tell me about GW" if you can just type GW? probably the first thing coming up is wikipedia.

dragos240
May 9th, 2009, 03:41 PM
Looks good, although you also have www.keyboardr.com (http://www.keyboardr.com) which is some kind of enhancement of Google.

Wow thats pretty usefull!

Sealbhach
May 9th, 2009, 03:44 PM
Unlike Google, which automatically indexes billions of web pages to answer users' search queries, Wolfram Alpha uses sophisticated algorithms to attempt to understand user questions, and then uses the resources stored in its expert-curated database to offer up answers and relevant information.

Sounds potentially irritating.

.

Kareeser
May 9th, 2009, 03:47 PM
why type "tell me about GW" if you can just type GW? probably the first thing coming up is wikipedia.

GW? First thing I think of is Bush. ;)

(and not in a good way. But I digress. Off-topic.)

Sealbhach
May 9th, 2009, 04:21 PM
The thing about Google is they will always be vulnerable in search. If a better search engine comes along, they could lose 90% market share in a matter of weeks. It's not like customers have anything invested in Google search, it's just another webpage. If everyone had found Cuil to have some great advantage, Google would have been history by now.


.

pwnst*r
May 9th, 2009, 04:43 PM
The thing about Google is they will always be vulnerable in search. If a better search engine comes along, they could lose 90% market share in a matter of weeks. It's not like customers have anything invested in Google search, it's just another webpage. If everyone had found Cuil to have some great advantage, Google would have been history by now.


.

in a manner of weeks? LOL

"google" has become synonymous with searching. hence why it's also a "verb"

richg
May 9th, 2009, 04:51 PM
I use Scoogle.org most of the time. It does not track you.

Many people are clueless or impatient when searching the 'Net.
I find answers in a short time.
You learn to search by searching. OJT, On the Job Training.
Rich

stwschool
May 9th, 2009, 04:58 PM
To be honest I see this site offering an alternative to Wikipedia rather than google, just my 2 cents.

SomeGuyDude
May 9th, 2009, 06:38 PM
To be honest I see this site offering an alternative to Wikipedia rather than google, just my 2 cents.

^-- this.

From the looks of the article, they clearly misinterpret the idea of a search engine to mean "I'm asking it questions" as opposed to "I'm looking for information". If I search for "Ubuntu" or "Canon SD1100", I don't want a bunch of info on the topic, I want to download/shop/read reviews. If someone searches for a band they don't just want some collated info, they probably want a webpage. For info hunting Wikipedia is more extensive than anything else out there.

The only thing this could be useful for would be for contemporary and constantly-updating information which, sadly, they admit is its fundamental weakness.

Wiebelhaus
May 9th, 2009, 06:45 PM
Wolfram Alpha is supposed to be the next generation search engine. It goes online on May 18th. Check out this article :

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bigger-than-google-new-search-engine-unveiled/92193-11.html


the new tool reflected the growing reach of emerging artificial intelligence and "a step towards a self-organising internet" that intuitively understands what users need from it.

That's freaking cool , thanks for the heads up!

walkerk
May 9th, 2009, 08:22 PM
Looks good, although you also have www.keyboardr.com which is some kind of enhancement of Google.

Thanks fot this link. keyboardr is great...

Skripka
May 9th, 2009, 08:46 PM
^-- this.

From the looks of the article, they clearly misinterpret the idea of a search engine to mean "I'm asking it questions" as opposed to "I'm looking for information". If I search for "Ubuntu" or "Canon SD1100", I don't want a bunch of info on the topic, I want to download/shop/read reviews. If someone searches for a band they don't just want some collated info, they probably want a webpage. For info hunting Wikipedia is more extensive than anything else out there.

The only thing this could be useful for would be for contemporary and constantly-updating information which, sadly, they admit is its fundamental weakness.

Bear in mind though with any database/search engine the largest problem for the user is how to frame a query to get what you want and a minimum of search noise.

Framing things as questions can often be more efficient for the user, than trying to deduce likely tags or search strings for what they want.


Coming up with a search string that finds what you want, is currently, a fair bit of art.


Say I wanted to know more about why bands nowadays often times have an umlaut in their name.

To get what will tell me what I want to know-which is actually located at the Wikipedia article entitled "Heavy Metal Umlaut", I would have to know that these bands are heavy metal bands.

See the problem?

kernelhaxor
May 9th, 2009, 08:47 PM
in a manner of weeks? LOL

"google" has become synonymous with searching. hence why it's also a "verb"

+1

How many of these "next big search engines" haven't we seen? Every once in a while a new one comes up, and gets all they hype and then just fades away ..
Even if its really better than Google, it would take a long time to capture even a considerable share in the market ..

billgoldberg
May 9th, 2009, 09:17 PM
i never understand how some people can't find what they're looking for via google. that stems from people using bad keywords.

besides, nobody is going to top google's search engine. at least not in our lifetime.

That's a bold statement to make and can't be true.

Logic dictates that search engine are going to get better and better.

I myself use ask.com, I like it.

Saint Angeles
May 9th, 2009, 09:51 PM
heres a random question...

what ever happened to ask jeeves?

i only ask out of a hilarious curiosity.

pwnst*r
May 9th, 2009, 10:06 PM
That's a bold statement to make and can't be true.

Logic dictates that search engine are going to get better and better.

I myself use ask.com, I like it.

it is a bold statement, isn't it. you don't know if it can or can't be true though. we'll have to wait and see.

t0p
May 9th, 2009, 11:33 PM
besides, nobody is going to top google's search engine. at least not in our lifetime.

That rather depends on when you die. I'm ,uh, thirtysomething now. Assuming I get my threescore and ten, I'll die in another thirtysomething years time. There have been stupendous developments in computer and software design since I was born. I anticipate greater changes in the approaching decades.

chucky chuckaluck
May 9th, 2009, 11:50 PM
Looks good, although you also have www.keyboardr.com which is some kind of enhancement of Google.

refreshing, to say the least.

some_random_noob
May 9th, 2009, 11:50 PM
That's a bold statement to make and can't be true.

Logic dictates that search engine are going to get better and better.

I myself use ask.com, I like it.

Same here! Cuil is another one (it's just really bad). Hopefully people continue to support the competition. Answers.com works quite well for detailed information, I definitely need to use that more.

Here's a great extract from Infowars about why they use Scroogle:

http://freespeech.vo.llnwd.net/o25/pub/images/notrace.gif


Now that the faceless corporation known as Google is in the business of selling preferential treatment in search results, shamelessly engages in clickthrough and search result tracking, and inserts a never-expiring cookie on your computer that plants a globally-unique ID on your hard disk for profiling purposes, we thought it was time to dump them -- at least dump their intrusive technology. Infowars now uses Scroogle, a web service that disguises the Internet address of users who want to run Google searches anonymously. Unfortunately, Google is the most effective search engine hands-down, but that does not mean they should be allowed to track you and throw annoying ads up on your screen. Scroogle is the best compromise at this point.

RedSingularity
May 9th, 2009, 11:52 PM
Hmmmm looks interesting......

t0p
May 9th, 2009, 11:54 PM
the new tool reflected the growing reach of emerging artificial intelligence and "a step towards a self-organising internet" that intuitively understands

Hoo boy, do you know what this means? At 9:00 AM on 18 May Wolfram Alpha goes online. At 9:15 it will become sentient. At 9:18 it will launch America's nuclear bombs at Russia. You know the rest...

Sealbhach
May 9th, 2009, 11:56 PM
I still sort of trust Google, at least while the founders are still in charge.

.

toupeiro
May 10th, 2009, 04:44 AM
Looks good, although you also have www.keyboardr.com which is some kind of enhancement of Google.

This is AWESOME! Thank you for sharing!

pwnst*r
May 10th, 2009, 05:41 AM
what i like about keyboardr: ESC resets your search

what i don't like: it searches with every keystroke

toupeiro
May 11th, 2009, 01:46 AM
what i like about keyboardr: ESC resets your search

what i don't like: it searches with every keystroke

Thats actually one of the things I really like about it. Though im sure on dialup or something like that it might not be so grand.

pwnst*r
May 11th, 2009, 01:47 AM
Thats actually one of the things I really like about it. Though im sure on dialup or something like that it might not be so grand.

i have FIOS so bandwidth is never an issue, but it does bug me. i'd rather it not do anything until i hit return.

starcannon
May 11th, 2009, 02:10 AM
Once its up and running I'll try it for awhile; I bookmarked it and will check back regularly. If its even half as good as his Mathmatica program its gonna give Google incentive to continue innovating. I like Google a lot, but I love healthy competition even more.

drawkcab
May 11th, 2009, 03:56 AM
Hoo boy, do you know what this means? At 9:00 AM on 18 May Wolfram Alpha goes online. At 9:15 it will become sentient. At 9:18 it will launch America's nuclear bombs at Russia. You know the rest...

Wait, where do the cylons fit into this?

LightB
May 11th, 2009, 06:56 AM
I use google, ask.com for images.

Sorry but this supposedly great engine will have to prove it when it's out. Right now it reeks of hype and the guy named it after himself which reminds me of Hans Reiser.

Tomone
May 11th, 2009, 07:10 AM
Wolfram Alpha isn't supposed to be a google replacement. Wolfram calls it a "computational knowledge engine." Here's a good review/explanation (http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2009/05/09/test-driving-the-wolfram-alpha/) of the thing.

capnthommo
May 11th, 2009, 10:51 AM
what i'd like to know is, when you key a search term will 90% of the results be (commercial) comparison sites? that really jerks my chain, when you are looking for eg a source for something and the first few pages are mostly just other companies trying to get you to use their search facility.

the poor saps like me who actually run their own web presence have to really struggle to compete with people who are only trying to put themselves into the middle as a (paid) unnecessary intermediary. its like wanting to buy a bottle of milk and having to run the gauntlet of 'agents' offering to find you a squillion different sources, most of which are 300 miles away.

sorry about that, but i had to get it off my chest
i'll just go away now, shall i?
cheers
nigel (feeling pretty sheepish) ;)

richg
May 11th, 2009, 03:58 PM
what i'd like to know is, when you key a search term will 90% of the results be (commercial) comparison sites? that really jerks my chain, when you are looking for eg a source for something and the first few pages are mostly just other companies trying to get you to use their search facility.

the poor saps like me who actually run their own web presence have to really struggle to compete with people who are only trying to put themselves into the middle as a (paid) unnecessary intermediary. its like wanting to buy a bottle of milk and having to run the gauntlet of 'agents' offering to find you a squillion different sources, most of which are 300 miles away.

sorry about that, but i had to get it off my chest
i'll just go away now, shall i?
cheers
nigel (feeling pretty sheepish) ;)

That is reality.

Rich