New semantic search engine goes live

Category: Digital Marketing

May 19th 09, 08:19

Semantic search engine Wolfram Alpha has finally gone live.

The self-described "computational knowledge engine" has received extensive media coverage in recent weeks due to its claims of being able to return specific statistical and factual information in response to users' queries rather than display a list of websites that may contain the relevant answers.

Wolfram Alpha uses natural language processing technology to determine the nature of the user's query and return the relevant figures and information. It is also capable of working out mathematical equations and plotting statistics.

The interactive engine was soft-launched last week and received a full launch today (May 18th) to a mixed response.

While Chris Sherman of Search Engine Land praised Wolfram Alpha for being "fun and enchanting", Tim Danton of PC Pro said the search engine is too US-centric.

Wolfram Alpha was created by Stephen Wolfram, a UK physicist, and feedback is currently being collected from users with a view to improving the results returned by the engine.

This news story was brought to you by Bluhalo, a leading UK digital agency.


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