Google m ay be the most popular search engine on the planet, but it is not always the best choice for certain kinds of searches. There are many different types of Internet search engines, some of which are not true search engines at all but yet provide access to information that has never been easily accessible. One of these is Wolfram Alpha, a very unique web site that asks to be known as a "computational knowledge engine.
What is WolframAlpha?
Unlike a typical search engine Wolfram Alpha takes existing information and uses it to compute results that hopefully are of use to the user. Created by mathematics genius Stephen Wolfram this alternative search engine is better for mathematical oriented queries than for finding random factual information. At the time of WolframAlpha's opening the database had a reported 10+ trillion pieces of data which can be queried and manipulated to create new information that can be used to solve an underlying question. If it sounds confusing it is. At least for those unfamiliar with the Mathematica language that Wolfram developed back in the early 1980's. The good news is that with a little training almost anyone can get useful, tangible information out of the the Wolfram-Alpha system.
How To Use Wolfram Alpha
Imagine for example a user that wants to compare and contrast the differences between the two cities of San Francisco, USA and Tokyo, Japan. Using Google a user would have to hope that someone had already done all of the work in comparing the two cities, otherwise the user would have to search through many pages of data attempting to find specific information. With WolframAlpha a user need only make a query such as "San Francisco to Tokyo," and the results will not be a list of web sites but a factual display of all of the information that the system can use to compare the two cities. Population, elevation, distance, and average flight time between the two cities are examples of the information that Wolfram calculates based on data that by itself was of little use. More data is being added to the WolframAlpha system each day, and one can only imagine what this computational search engine will be able to do in a few years time.
While WolframAlpha is by no means the best place for all web searches to begin it is definitely the only significant place to find these kinds of computational answers in a fairly easy to use yet very powerful way.
