As part of our testing, for a short time yesterday we opened up access to a small test cluster that was being used for load testing. Within minutes, thousands of people discovered this and started exploring Wolfram|Alpha.
Wow!
(We recognize Cape Town, Delhi, Tokyo, Lima, Rio de Janeiro… We’re not quite so sure about the spot in the heart of the Australian desert.)
In any case, we’re continuing our final preparations. We plan to launch late next week, with the official date now set for May 18.
Thanks for all of your encouragement!
“Within minutes, thousands of people discovered this and started exploring Wolfram|Alpha.”
And Google indexed the site, too.
Do this Google search:
site:wolframalpha.com
Follow the links to the cached pages in the search result, and the pages that were available when the site was crawled can be examined.
Mike D.
Great work, it’s timing is crucial to the pandemic spreading throughout the world at a steady rate. (see: http://www.healthmap.org/swineflu)
My wife is at the heart of the WHO’s efforts to get all laboratories around the world up, running and more importantly, test in such a way that resources do not run out at critical stages during a pandemic.
The current H1N1 Influenza spread is now not the issue, its the possible re-emergence of this virus plus a possible H3N5 pandemic that is now the concern.
To accomplish the important testing phases of viral outbreaks, monitoring accurate demographical information will be crucial. I need to know urgently whether Wolfram will be able to provide such information to labs with specific demographics for each country by launch , and if not by when.
I am also approaching Google with the same request.
Once we have the information my wife will formalize the use of the search engine that can provide this data by including the specifics in the standard laboratory sampling process procedures under pandemic conditions.
I would appreciate it if you could contact me per e mail so that I can be more specific regarding the data required
My point of view is that data availability in proper format will save a lot of lives, hence this approach.
Thanks and looking forward to the launch.
Thanks for the preview. I wrote this blog post review of Wolfram/Alpha. Key West News as curated by Wolfram/Alpha. http://ff.im/-2K4ny
I would expect your servers to get hammered initially due to the pent up demand and the time interested parties have had to consider searches they would like to run immediately, then the wave of tyre kickers will arrive once the news orgs, twitter, etc start spreading the word, volume will be massive due to the better than Google hype but most of their searches are likely to be trivial, then the academics that are not already aware will get to grips with it so I can see a pretty drawn out traffic spike coming your way. You might even see some malicious DDoS traffic if someone thinks it would be ‘fun’ to try and take you offline early on. Then it might settle down or it might just keep growing…
Good luck!
To me Wolfram Alpha seems to be a perfect introduction of Chapter 13 of NKS book connected to PCE of Chapter 12.
I got a chance to preview it last night. Of course, it requires lots of improvements but having witnessed Google’s evolution, I am confident W-A will create a big niche for itself.
The best thing that WA does and search engine doesn’t is it makes one addicted (like social networking sites) to use it. At least it made me one.
Eager to see it evolving.
after this project, it is very defficult to imagine the future of internet after 20 years or 50 !!
[quote] We recognize Cape Town, Delhi, Tokyo, Lima, Rio de Janeiro…[/quote]
And there is Bangalore too!
I wouuld like to frame a query concerning the interaction between gasoline and hydrogen at combustion. Specifically, I want to know how much hydrogen is necessary to make gasoline burn completely in a closed system, such as a car. How would I frame a query like that?
That “spot in the heart of the Australian desert” is probably Ayers Rock. The city, not the rock itself, of course.
Ðвтор, делайте пожалуйÑта регулÑрные Ð¾Ð±Ð½Ð¾Ð²Ð»ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ñтатей на вашем Ñайте… Рто в поÑледнее Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ñ‡Ñ‚Ð¾-то Ñ Ñтим туго…
Please be open so we can improve search engine optimization for our business purpose.
“We’re not quite so sure about the spot in the heart of the Australian desert.” Alice Springs?
well, good luck then guys …
How does it feel to be part of the large sweep of cultural evolution?
I can’t wait til the launch!
Being one of those red dots I was quite amazed with Wolfram|Alpha and its ability to locate future events : http://imgur.com/2z29.png :-).
I was eager to do some test runs of my own queries after reading a lot of posts on this new search engine. I had earlier requested for an access to Wolfram, but was disappointed that i was not given access :(. But now i’m a bit happy to hear that it will be live for evryone on May 18. i will stay tunned ! for that Day to arrive
El futuro está aquÃ
You are doing a great marketing job here guys! I can barely wait until May 2009 to try it out. What day in May is it coming out?
Les deseo mucho exito.
Si quieren contar con colaboración desde Argentina estoy dispuesto a colaborar con Ustedes.
Suerte
Marcelo
curiously waiting for release of Wolfram alpha
As you expect an overload perhaps you can appeal to people to make their PCs spare capacity available to the Wolfram Alpha Network.
well done.i am waiting for it
Endlich mal eine echte Innovation im Netz!
Bin wirklich schon gespannt.
Fragen über Fragen, die auf Antwort hoffen oder
nie gestellt wurden.
Vielleicht eine neue Sicht auf viele Dinge, aber vermutlich
auch viel Quatsch …:-)
I think the greatest thanks go to Wolfram Alpha team and their leader for the inspiration their effort gives us all. It does so to an extend that the end result is at the moment unbelievably … irrelevant. So, thank you again for the inspiration, for the passionate speeches (available on you tube) and for your awesome endeavour. For those of us who have even the basic understanding of Knowledge Management it is certainly a big (and very positive) surprise that the breakthrough you promise (and we have all anticipated for long now) will come from the area of Computational Knowledge (and not possibly from another area of tacit and not algorithm- based, mainly explicit knowledge). Is geometry the indicator for comprehensible knowledge patterns ? God for ever geometrizes ? I think we live in exciting times that the answer to all that maybe imminent. Anyway I beg your pardon for the long message and will leave you with something intriguing: “Αεί ο Θεός ο ÎœÎγας γεωμετÏεί, το κÏκλου μήκος ίνα οÏίση διαμÎÏ„Ïω, παÏήγαγεν αÏιθμόν απÎÏαντον, καί όν, φεÏ, ουδÎποτε όλον θνητοί θα εÏÏωσι”
Ich frage wirklich ob das hier nur ein großer Hype ist, oder wirklich erstnhaft eine Google-Alternative werden kann. Ich warte auf jeden Fall auf den 18.
Can hardly wait for the launch…. Want to see how much traffic you guys get hit with on launch day.
On a side note that dot in Pakistan is in the NWFP province (supposedly under control of the Taliban) makes me wonder what they were looking up
i cant wait guys!!!
1. A reviewer mentioned that WA guesses if there is an ambiguity in the question. I suggest instead that it returns a dropdown list with the alternatives. If the question for example mentions NY then the dropdown list would contain NY City and NY State. The questioner would select the correct line and his question would be redisplayed including the clarification before WA evaluated it.
2. Allow users to create a profile in which they would include preferences so that WA could take them into account with all their questions.
So glad to hear that this has an official launch date. How could you expect to launch something so grand and not have it heralded upon the masses?! The funny thing (and I think wishful thinking upon so many people) is that this is being touted as the next great Google Killer. I think we both know that, wishful thinking aside, this isn’t the case. I wrote up a brief note (with Pix!!) on why I think that WolframAlpha is Not a Google Killer. I would love to hear your thoughts: http://www.sagerock.com/blog/wolframalpha-not-google-killer/
Hey , you are a genius.Congratulations for Wolfram.