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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!
ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
I AM DYING TO USE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE!!!!!!!
I’LL SELL MY SOUL TO GET IN ON THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Just kidding about selling my soul. I’m not that Faustian. But other than that . . .)
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why don`t you let us testing until official launch ? 🙂 Is was so amazing ,but it worked only for a short time … 🙁 i was so fustrated…. but is good to know that you let us know the launch date !!! I can`t wait ! Expectations are quite big in Romania for the launch of Wolfram Alpha !
you must have put it online for short segments throughout the day… i wouldn’t expect both north america and europe to be so packed and still have a reasonable amount in south asia and australia… unless people stay up all night refreshing the page in anticipation of a secret launch!
I have an excellent idea for you, please contact me if you are interested.
Best regards.
Alberto Patat
Dear Friends
Well, we have to expect soon after to see a serious improvement in the way people deal with every day matters.
Of course we all know that nothing will substitute reasoning and mathematical thinking.
I wish I had the chance to begin developing a sophisticated application as a part of the team as volunteer.
May be internet will make it possible.
Reza
No Reza,
I don’t think Wolfram Alpha is only about improving the way people deal with every day matters.
I think it has more to do with achieving the Truth, that is, said Thomas Aquinas, ad-equation between the thing and the intellect (adaequatio rei et intellectus).
A lot will depend, I think, on whether the various sources from which the engine will calculate the results and give the answers will have been filtered,
that is,
whether some sites will have been blocked, like Google does,
or whether the intellect will be allowed to be freely led to the conclusions to which its inferences lead the intellect.
When they arrive at so-called evidences, most people substitute reasoning with faith or belief. Will the engine also do that, thereby refusing to think mathematically or rather refusing to think logically?
Next question is of course: How come the conclusions of the intellect, such as E=MC2, are applicable in or to reality? I don’t yet know the answer to that question but I am “only†47 years old. And who knows, Wolfram Alpha may have the answer.
“Mathematicaâ€, the symbolic language which Dr Stephen Wolfram created, would allow the user to express complex computational processes in a fluid, intuitive way, thereby calculating answers instead of just returning search results.
Dear Ivo
What I am trying to say is that Wolfram Alpha will pave the way toward people being more concerned about facts not information which leads them to those facts.
Likewise Mathematica itself ,which was developed to leave the task of intuitive mathematical reasoning more at hand for non genius people also possible.
I am greatly sympathetic regarding what Dr. Wolfram is doing since I wish someday people from my home country will be able to be part of the equation too.
I will believe in this till the end of life.
And I this this will be a giant leap to be more close to unified way of harnessing the knowledge which were accumulated by human being during the last five centuries of so.
Regards
Reza
Dear Reza,
Wolfram Alpha can answer questions like how high is Mt Everest, what is the fish production in Italy, and what was the weather in London on the day John F Kennedy was killed. But because it relies on verified data in its system rather than an ad hoc search of the internet, there are BIG GAPS IN ITS KNOWLEDGE, especially in pop culture and information that frequently changes, such as film showings. (1)
The engine answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from STRUCTURED data. (2)
Let’s see how the “structurers†of these data have filled the gaps.
It seems to me that they have had a wide freedom to fill these gaps. Perhaps, they even abused that freedom. I don’t say they did abuse it. Lemme see!
Best regards,
Ivo
“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for …â€
(John Lennon)
(1)
Inventor unveils Internet’s big, new knowledge engine
9 May 2009, 1022 hrs IST, AGENCIES
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Internet-/Inventor-unveils-Internets-big-new-knowledge-engine/articleshow/4502287.cms
(2)
Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine http://www.wolframalpha.com
Sunday, May 10, 2009
http://weeksupdate.com/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-computational-knowledge.html
From all of the all the red dots around the world, looks like you will be adding lots of Dell and Cisco equipment sooner than expected. Amazing interest. Wanted to be in the test group, but alas….maybe I’ll get to use it next week? Meanwhile, will a listing of all the various data sources and tables be available? That would help us predetermine and define our queries. And will the output reports show the date of the last upload of actual data sources used in individual calculations and answers? With a project like this, there should be no such thing as too much information. Thanks, looking forward to the launch.
The town in the centre of Australia is Alice Springs.
Clearly there’s a need for Wolfram/Alpha to be given ways to input pictoral data 😉
The dot is not in the center so not Alice Springs. Looks more like opal towns: mintabie or coober pedy.
I’ve been checking it a couple of times a day and I must have missed it. It must have not been opened for very long. My first question will be when will the Moon break from orbit? This is based on the fact the moon is slowly moving farther away each year.
You did cause quite a fuss. You do deserve it though. Best of luck.
PS. If Google makes an offer, accept it.
Well actually I wouldn’t accept it- Wolfram Alpha is a great hope at stopping the supremacy of Google! But I suppose if the terms were such that Google’s ownership wouldn’t inflict upon the quality and maintenance of WA…
I disagree, do not sale out to Google. Both companies will be better of being separate.
But Google should index Alpha’s inquiries and offer Alpha links when appropriate.
I also wanted to be a part of this test group. Could someone from W|A respond to my email like the automated response promised, please?
Aahh,,how wonderful it is to be able to wolframize stuffs! Brilliant piece of work indeed!
May 18th! That’s Mount St. Helens Day!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens
Do I have read something similar in an Asimov`s novel?
A super engine of search and rearch called “— ®—“?
Spanish support or translating?
Interested about educational applications and pedagogy.
They said that they are not planning a translation yet. It is a lot of work just in one language. Look at it as an opportunity to teach children the importance of learning English 😀
(I’m Spanish too, by the way).
Looking forward to testing out the results from this promising endeavour. Glad to see friendly competition on the search engine market.
i guess im the only one from my country phil who has interest in this,, oh well what the heck
How many people in the test? There is at least one other person on it from Christchurch, New Zealand.
im waiting to try this out, as i heard so much about it lol
by the way, im struggling to understand your UTMs, mr wolfram lolz
Hello Team,
I want test, If you want sent me an access link
See you,
gab
Could you please add a translation search feature to Wolfram Alpha? I could not find a search engine doing that.
Greetings everybody,
I am working in a company of more than 60.000 employees, and can not wait to see this roling.
Please keep in your initial list of very much interested gents.
Thanks.
We’re not quite so sure about the spot in the heart of the Australian desert….
wasn’t me
Message to Alpha Team or PR : could we see at least,a little bit more activity on WolframAlpha Blog ?? Maybe 2 or 3 posts/day ?? More news,some screenshots,reviews,opinions,some videos…give us something until May 18 !! 🙂 We are hungry for news about Wolfram|Alpha !!! Feed us !!! :))
Sorry for the pressure that we put on you,that we don`t have patience….but the ideea on Wolfram|Alpha could do for us is simply….a stroke of genius! Keep up with the good work,guys !!! We love you! 🙂
i wonder, how it manipulates the linguistic part of our input…can you post any info about that?
What’s the thing with the interesting outputs? It doesn’t work..
Hi Oliver,
Once the site is live on the 18th, we’ll have the input and output boxes working.
Thanks!
Over the time you should generate a huge output gallery, so that other search engines can index them, and increase the traffic to WA.
Hi there,
It’s very exciting to me. I missed to test the system when you opened up it for public. Are you planning to do it once more before you finally open it on 18 May.
It’s really very hard to wait. 🙂
Thanks and Congrats!
Aakash
You should consider hiring some marketing/creative people to market Wolfram Alpha. For one, get a better, smaller name and stop talking about math, it scares the common man 😉
It all sounds quite interesting. Am looking forward to the 18th.
I’m curious to see how WA handles the stock market. Successfully calculating probabilities in that field would certainly increase its popularity.
Probability theory has less applicability to stock market price prediction than most people might imagine.
To be sure, market inefficiencies do sometimes occur and speculators find them with the aid of mathematics, and for a time exploit them, but in so doing they erase those inefficiencies. As a result, there is an endemic tendency towards increasing unpredictability, approaching limits set by the going rate of profit for large scale trading.
Probability theory is naturally blind without access to the relevant facts. Nobody knows what everybody else is going to do, nor their exact circumstances, and yet these hidden factors indirectly determine prices through the mechanism of exchange.
The price system is a distributed, information-carrying, cost discovery process. It is by far the most complex system on Earth, integrating and harmonizing the goal-directed actions of billions of individuals.
Can you find an overlooked profit opportunity with Wolfram|Alpha?
Welcome to the gold rush!
Wolfram Alpha is Awesome! I got a chance to try it by myself, and in my opinion this system is something really unbelievable. Off course its have some bugs, but I think they will fix it until release day.
Por fin alguien que le hace la competencia al grande Google…. ya quiero jugar con el…
Apropos of ‘So much for a quiet launch’ – I think you will find that red dot in the middle of Australia probably emanates from Woomera in South Australia and a 61,0000 sq km aerospace test facility as well as being the location for testing the UK’s Atomic Bomb experiments in the 1950s. Wonder why they are interested in mathematics?!
Why the wait 🙂 It’s like giving away candy and you’re not allowed to touch or eat it 🙂
We will wait till the 18th of May I’ll guess ;-D
Is the Search Engine “IDIOT PROOF”
Will it have answers to the question posted for …
1. to test the search engine
2. genuinely asked questions
3. Will that break any IPRs
Hope to see more substance on 18th May…
This is not a search engine , i belief wolfram alpha would fuction more like an
Engine computing site.
we are waiting for this explosion,and i hope to get involved in this evolution
“We are pleased to let you know that you are one of the people we’re able to invite to preview Wolfram|Alpha.”
I just wanted to register the fact that I am previewing W|A and so far so good!
Henri LeGrand
Simply can’t wait for this new and extraordinary tool. Thank you.
Hi,
one small question: how are you going to create revenue from this service ?
regards,
Fred
eager to test this wolframalfa and to see the difference between the results by google and stephen’s wolframalfa. looking forward to use this as early as possible.
hey all,
I had a question for those of you who either have had a chance, or have a chance, to use wolfram alpha:
How good is it at handling discrete data?
For example, say I wanted to look at the trend in refrigerators (or wind turbines or solar panels). Does wolfram alpha have the data (and the ability) to handle data that has quite a few discrete characteristics and forms various analyses on them?
Take refrigerators – each model of refrigerator has an average price (per year), a capacity in cubic feet, energy consumption facts, mean time to failure, region of manufacture etc, sales per year, and probably about another 200 discrete quantifiable characteristics. I would like to say find trends in performance year over year, or see how price may affect sales. Is wolfram alpha good at these types of queries, eg:
refrigerator efficiency history california
refrigerator price vs refrigerator efficiency per year
etc. etc. etc. I’d think that consumers would want this quite a bit to do comparative shopping..
thanks,
Ed
Are there going to be any easter eggs? Like, say, a rigorous solution to one of the outstanding Hilbert problems?
The results of my test drive.
http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/2009/05/09/test-driving-the-wolfram-alpha/
“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?
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 😉 🙂
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
As you expect an overload perhaps you can appeal to people to make their PCs spare capacity available to the Wolfram Alpha Network.
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
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/