Wolfram Alpha
, a search tool which is due to belaunched this month, is set to
revolutionise how businesses and users pull together reports based
on information gathered across the internet and corporate
networks.
Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, which
produces the mathematical modelling tool, believes the world can be
represented in a computational form as a mathematical model. He
claims it is possible to build programming models to represent
human knowledge. In Wolfram Alpha, these models can then be used to
calculate answers to user questions.
Wolfram says the computation and algorithms take the fruits of
science and engineering and encode them in a mathematical form
using
Mathematica
so that they can be used by Wolfram Alpha. Users ask questions in
plain English and get results that combine different sources of
information to provide meaningful data. For example, if a user asks
"What is the contribution to GDP per capita in France?", Wolfram
Alpha would calculate the answer based on information it gleans
from public and private databases.
Mike Davis, senior analyst at Ovum, says Wolfram Alpha could be
used like an enterprise portal to pull in useful information to
improve staff productivity. He expects it will appeal to people who
require specialist knowledge, such as researchers. "Wolfram Alpha
is charged on a subscription basis. It is not a Google killer, but
a tool for people who need to tap into specialist knowledge," he
says.
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Deep Thought, the most
powerful computer every built, was asked the "ultimate question".
After 7.5 million years of computations, it came back with the
answer "42".
Perhaps Wolfram Alpha too will be able to work out the answer to
the ultimate question.