A new "Google" for nerds

[montewilson]

Hi Guys - Not sure where to post this so I'll try here. This is an article about a new search engine that uses different search methods to Google and for now is focused on Science topics. Quite cool!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/answer-to-absolutely-everything-gets-closer/2009/05/17/1242498638305.html

www.wolframalpha.com

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the link.

[Omaroo]

This is a very different beast Monte - thanks for the heads up. The search dynamics are utterly different to Google. And it's fast.

Wow :thumbsup:

The sun set at 5:28pm on the day of my birth. :lol:

[spacezebra]

Thanks for the link Monte! This will help with my studies.

Cheers Petra d.

[dpastern]

It's not particularly accurate, at least with dates- I just entered my birthday (11/5/69) and it says no official holidays. Baloney, was Mother's Day in Australia and many other countries.

Dave

[troypiggo]

Not the best test. Mother's Day in the US was 10/5 this year, and you'd assume this is US-centric, at least for now.

PS - Happy Birthday for the other day.

[dpastern]

The US and Australia and a host of other countries celebrate Mother's day on the 2nd Sunday in May. So, if it's US Centric, then it certainly isn't accurate ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day#Dates_around_the_wor ld

So maybe it's not US or Australia centric, but originates from a country that doesn't celebrate Mother's Day on that day I wonder. Would be odd, since the 2nd Sunday in May is used by most Western countries...possible, but odd.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, I had a pretty good day, made up with Meg @ work, all's good again.

Dave

[DJDD]

I read about this online.
just gave it a go.

My query:
- How much is the tea in china?

Answer:
- no

"No" what? :lol:


still, early days...

[dpastern]

http://www15.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=is+sex+fun%3F

love the answer - it isn't sure what to do with the input rofl!!!

Dave

[troypiggo]

Oooh, you meant 11/5/69 was Mother's Day back then, not 11/5/09 was Mother's Day this year on your birthday. Sorry.

[Robh]

Interesting project.
I guess this is the first search engine to employ serious language interpretation.

Here's a few things I tried ...
add 25 and 30 ---> 55. Good!
square root of 9 plus 16 ---> 3+16 ---> 19. Good!
time 20 minutes after 2:50pm ---> 3:10pm Good!
average of 45, 60 and 70 ---> 1/2(45+(60^70)) What the ...!
reduce 20 by 5 ---> solve 20x5=0 ---> No solutions exist. What the ...!
distance from Earth to Moon ---> 395501km Good!
Bathurst ---> Banjul, Gambia Pop 34589. No Bathurst, Australia.

I was impressed with many other calculations I tried, using a combination of natural language and number.
However "2 to the power of 3 plus 3 to the power of 2" was interpreted as 2^(3+3^2) instead of 2^3+3^2.
Works great when it's right but you need to be savvy when things go amiss?

Rob

[dpastern]

hehehe, yes! It has potential, but Google suits most of my needs for now.

Dave

[Omaroo]

Structure is (as shown): "average of 45, 60, 70" and this works fine.

"And" would be treated as a logical 'and' function I presume.

[vash]

I typed ham vs bacon (couldn't think of anything smart)

1 serve of bacon is only 7 grams get real.

[vash]

ok got one
type in some random huge number followed by "in roman numerals"

[sheeny]

:rofl:

I just type in "oberon nsw australia".

It told me it didn't know what to do with my input...:P

So I erased the "nsw australia" and it tells me oberon is average of 19.2 AU from Earth... Now that could explain a lot!:rofl:

:whistle:

Al.

[Robh]

I like it!
Try ... one trillion in binary


Rob