Long ago, I posted my impression on Cuil, a new search engine claimed to be better than Google. That statement was quickly turned into a mocking from its users and so far we haven’t really heard about Cuil anymore. Wolfram Alpha is another new “search engine” but on a completely different approach. Wolfram Alpha is actually a “computational knowledge engine”, meaning all data collected by Wolfram Alpha are pretty much computable to provide more accurate statistics and knowledge combined from different data sources in its server.
If that sentence sounds blurry to you, let’s just say that Wolfram Alpha is made more towards statistics, numbers, and computational purposes. Some example of queries that I tried are:
- 25th December 2009 – today (to find out how many more days before this year’s Christmas)
- Melbourne compared to Sydney (I want to know how big my lovely city is compared to Sydney)
- London to Melbourne (how long it takes for a flight to get there, time difference, etc)
Wolfram Alpha vs Google
Although some of the queries can be answered in Google search engine (such as “200 Pounds in USD” or “15% OFF 250″, for example), other complicated calculations are only possible through Wolfram Alpha.
In Google search engine or other similar search engines, you have to search by keywords and hoping that these keywords exist on sites or blogs such as mine. Wolfram Alpha, being a computational knowledge engine, works differently so it’s probably not the right tool to use if you are looking for specific keywords or people opinions on things (or other people).
So basically, you can’t compare Wolfram Alpha with Google, because they serve for a different purpose.
Wolfram Alpha Sample Queries & Results
However, you can still find data statistics of your favorite celebrity:
She's not really my fav, but I can't think of anyone else
Sometimes you want to find something, but Wolfram Alpha misunderstood you. Thankfully, Wolfram Alpha includes a list of category suggestions so you can correct its results easily.
I never know Eminem is edible
So if you are actually looking for calories information on the M&M chocolate, you can select the “Use as a food instead” since Wolfram Alpha thought “M&M” is actually “Eminem” the rapper 
You can also input a website (URL) in Wolfram Alpha which will try to compute and compile all information about the site.
When I tried my own domain (cravingtech.com/blog), it actually gave me this stats:
I wish this stat is true..31,000 daily visitors?
I wish I’m still studying in the University, knowing that Wolfram Alpha is there in times of need Oh wait, no, actually I’m very happy that I’m not in the Uni anymore lol.
Try Wolfram Alpha yourself 
The hardcore people behind Wolfram Alpha
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s nice to see people are actually still trying with google out there. In my opinion, it is too big an opponent.
Lol the bold guy in the pic looks like he watching something he shouldn’t anyway Wolfram Alpha is not in the same direct market with Google, Yahoo search or MSN who are targetting keywords on sites this is more of a knowledge engine so in my eyes both will exist side by side just not sure how popular Wolfram Alpha will be
Wolfram is used to get info, so is google. So there is some sort of competition. Is it faster for me to google it or use wolfram? thats the question.
Well then again, like I mentioned on the post, you can’t really compare Google with Wolfram Alpha
For example, if you query about the population of a city, Wolfram Alpha will merge and calculate the data from its servers to give you the result. Where as Google relies on a site/blog that has that information stored on the servers.