The Inevitable Wolfram|Alpha Problem: Semantics

Now that Wolfram|Alpha has launched, I thought I’d go take a look. After failing to find out the average happiness of France vs US (not a supported database yet, apparently), I tried out some of the examples and then checked out the “community” area. Inevitably, Wolfram|Alpha suffers from the same problems that have plagued every attempt to provide answers to human questions using technology since the dawn of computers: semantics, and specifically... [Read More...]

Here Comes Web 3.0: Wolfram|Alpha Launches Today

Wikipedia defines Web 3.0 as the “semantic web”, “making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.” We’ll get a step closer to that vision when Wolfram|Alpha (or maybe just “WolframAlpha” – their web site uses both) launches later today.   Wolfram|Alpha is a product from Wolfram Research (famous for its beautiful Mathematica software) that has been generating... [Read More...]