[Undertoad]

I have not found a use for this thing yet.

From Flint's link

In March, Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks, talked with Wolfram about the new system and described how it’s difference from Google.

“It doesn’t simply return documents that (might) contain the answers, like Google does, and it isn’t just a giant database of knowledge, like the Wikipedia. It doesn’t simply parse natural language and then use that to retrieve documents, like Powerset, for example.

Instead, Wolfram Alpha actually computes the answers to a wide range of questions — like questions that have factual answers such as “What is the location of Timbuktu?” or “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?,” “What was the average rainfall in Boston last year?,” “What is the 307th digit of Pi?,” or “what would 80/20 vision look like?”

=--What is the location of Timbuktu?

It maps it on an extremely simple map, which is OK but really inferior to Google Maps. If you ask Google, the first result says "Timbuktu is widely used to describe a place extremely far away and regarded by many as a myth. In reality it's a city in Mali." Which is better information than W|A gave you. Google wins.

=--How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?

Both answer this question, but Google not only answers this question directly as its first result, it also links to the Wikipedia entry for Hydrogen, which is more useful. Google wins.

=--What was the average rainfall in Boston last year?

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. That's OK because the question is strange. The average per what? Maybe try the *total* rainfaul in Boston last year.

Related inputs to try:
* rainfall in Boston last year

OK, What was the rainfall in Boston last year?

It shows the location of Boston's primary weather station.

Google does no better on these questions, but has links where you could conceivably look for the information. It's a draw.

=--What is the 307th digit of Pi?

W|A gets this correct. Google's entries are all about the text at Flint's link. The second result criticizes W|A:

"If you look up the definition of Google it simply says, "an index of stuff that matters" .

The sad news is that the 307th digit of Pi - DOES NOT MATTER."

Heh heh. W|A wins, but Google's result is more interesting: it doesn't matter.

=--What does 80/20 vision look like?

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. Google doesn't display the vision, but links to text that explains the system of measuring vision, which is about as good a result as we'd expect at this time in history. Google wins.

So, for the five questions that the founder felt were interesting things that W|A could do better than Google, the final score is Google 3, W|A 1. And I was using the natural language queries which W|A is supposed to handle and Google is not.