Wolfram Alpha: don’t ask the wrong questions
I’ve had a go at the Wolfram Alpha ‘knowledge engine’ preview.
Sadly, in my experience, it’s a bit disappointing: US-centric and effective only in specific, limited domains.
It gave no results for many of my queries, for example:
- ‘What is the population of Adelaide’ (capital of South Australia)
- ‘Tim Winton prizes’ (Australian writer)
- ‘where is Kapunda’ (town in South Australia — misinterpreted as an animal, kakunda)
- ‘where is Wandsworth, London’ (Wandsworth is a London borough — gives a ‘did you mean wadsworth’ response)
- ‘why is DAB radio delayed’ (and variations — ‘Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input’)
Alpha is a great project with a lot of potential – to provide well presented, accurate answers to questions asked in natural language.
But they better be quick or the world — or Google – will move on.
Of course google has no problem!
q: ‘What is the population of Adelaide’
a: Adelaide — Population: 1,158,259 (2007) (5th)
q: Tim Winton prizes
a: Tim Winton in line for a fourth Miles Franklin prize | Books …
q: where is Kapunda
a: [ link to google maps for kapunda ]
NLP – why bother?
Ave
12 May, 2009 at 11:45 am
It’s not clear what Alpha is offering.
Is it just Ask Jeeves with a more expensive education — or what?
With Google you know what to expect.
samdutton
13 May, 2009 at 9:02 am