Why Wolfram Alpha will not change the world
In case you haven't heard the story about the next "greatest thing since sliced bread", there is a new search engine, of sorts, called Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram is basically a big computation engine with a vast store of data to compute against. The press has been agog with the possibilities of the system, calling it a "Google killer" and more. Pardon me for my skepticism, but I don't think Wolfram will change the world.
Sure, it's a handy thing, a very handy thing, but it has significant limits. Getting data into the system is a manual affair that requires human curation, so from the very start of the project, its owners have a pipeline problem - the breadth of the engine's knowledge is limited by the amount of information their human agents can put into it. Unless they change that model, the pipeline problem never goes away. In fact, the problem only becomes bigger over time as humans generate more and more data for potential inclusion into the system.
Wolfram, in essence, has returned to the original Yahoo model of curated content, only using structured data and a more sophisticated search system. Yahoo gave up on curating data manually - it was just too inefficient and costly compared to automated indexing. While Wolfram will excel at answering the kind of complicated mathematical equations that it specializes in, I don't see it outshining Google.
Google's advantage (and disadvantage, as I have discussed previously) is the sheer volume of information in its index. I can search on Google and generally find an answer to a question within a few clicks. Why is that? In short, Google and other automated indexing engines rely on the millions upon millions of people around the world who contribute content to the Internet in the form of web pages, wikis, blogs, and many others. Wolfram, on the other hand, relies on its own staff of curators to ad data to the system.
And let's not forget about Twitter and other social media as the newest form of content contribution. If Twitter embodies Web 2.0, Wolfram Alpha embodies yet another take on Web 1.0. Don't get me wrong, Wolfram will be a boon to people doing some forms of research, but it will never live up to the hype that has been created around it.
The hype you seem to be rallying against was not generated by either Wolfram or Google or anybody else that matters. But, as you said, journalists wanting big splashy headlines to create sensationalism in order to generate viewers of their own content. Personally I ignored the hype as it was meaningless to me.
There is a problem with curated data, but I do not think it is necessarily an insurmountable problem. I think there is an opportunity there as well. Wolfram is trying to get access to a different type of data then Google does presently. They can very well compliment each other with one showing what is known with hard data and calculations and the other showing what the world is talking about.
There are big hurdles to Wolfram being a success. Can they curate data fast enough? Can they work the bugs out of their interface fast enough? Are there enough people who want facts and figures as well as gossip in the word? But I will not be grudge them the effort to find out, nor and I going to measure them against unrealistic expectations generated by others for their own agendas.
Pink pom Pom Bunnies cheering for Wolfram!! :)
And then...and then it turns around and RAWWWRR!! CHOMPS THEM TO BITS!!! yes!
Bad Wolfram! Bad!
0_0
As to the hype storm, I wonder how much of it was engineered by the Wolfram team or a PR/marketing firm on their behalf. They certainly intended to create a buzz for the launch, but I think the message may have gotten away from them a little bit. I'd love to hear what they have to say about it.