IT Curmudgeon

Changes in technology that make people slightly more productive aren't exciting any more. Often new releases make people less productive, anyway. What's exciting today are innovations that change the way we think and interact. Examples include Wiki, Facebook, and YouTube. A new search engine is coming soon that might make a big change in the way we use computers.

Search engines have come a long way since Yahoo and Alta Vista started. They offered two different approaches. In Yahoo, a website owner would list their site and it would be available to searchers. Alta Vista attempted to index pages on the web without prior listing by site owners. This latter was the model that Google adopted and improved upon. In the late 90's it was common to use all three search engines and to compare the results. Each was better at some kinds of searches.

We all know that Google was able to successfully refine its search engine technology to become the most-used search engine. People love Google, and its earnings and growth have shown how Google has capitalized on this early technology model.

The new search engine that is scheduled for release in May, 2009 is called Wolfram Alpha. The creator of Mathematica, Stephen Wolfram, is the force behind Wolfram Alpha. The primary distinction of this search engine is that it won't respond to a search with a list of websites, but with an answer to a question. This is called an "expert system." Search engines have said they would have this capability before, but turned into unashamed advertising engines that offer few real answers. For example, if you Google "fish oil" you will get very little reference information, and most of the listed sites are commercial sales sites for fish oil.

If you studied mathematics in school in the last 15 years, you know Wolfram as the creator of Mathematica, which has become an essential ingredient in modern math and math education. If the creativity and uniqueness of the Mathematica product can be used to forecast the quality of Wolfram Alpha, it should be a great search engine.

The success of this site will hinge on just a few elements:

• accuracy of the information
• credibility of the information
• usefulness of the information

It will be interesting to watch the birth of this new search engine. I expect that it will be very useful to some people who have certain kinds of information needs. I'll use it quite a bit, I'm sure. Another interesting aspect to this will be to watch, if it is successful, the other big players attempt to copy it. Remember, web corporations are a very bright and imitative people.

Here's to you and your success, Wolfram Alpha. Thanks for trying something new and creative!!