Wolfram Alpha aka Wolfy :)

A group of us were sitting in the last lecture of the term with a team presenting their vastly boring project. Thats when we experimented with the new search engine on the block -

Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/).

The chief architecht of the mathematical tool - Mathematica created this semantic "knowledge engine" that actually "understands" (or tries to) what you are looking for. To put it simply, if you type your query in Google, it feeds you back with millions of websites that may contain the answer. It is your job though to sift through the maze to find your solution. But what Wolfram Alpha (quite a mouthful; named it Wolfy) does is that it simply gives you the answer along with data related to your query, graphs, diagrams and so on. Its like an encyclopedia of sorts. You can look up geographical details, dietry information, solve mathematical equations, get musical notes for playing instruments and much much more. It is especially useful when you know how to use it and when you are looking for straight forward answers.

Alas, one mostly doesn't have straight forward enough questions and sometimes we do not even know what we are looking for. Wolfy has a looong way to go even with direct questions. But it definitely is a plus for students and techies. Geeks galore! :)

So, should Google be worried? This conversation should sum it up-

Dude 1 - Hey dude, did you check out the Wolfram Alpha?

Dude 2 - The wolf ra...what?? Ah! never mind. I will google it up!