Wolfram/Alpha: Your searches will never be the same

Until this week, I had never heard of WolframAlpha. Seriously, someone created a search engine with a brain to help find an answer. Have you never heard of it either? Watch this video for a quick overview:



I am eager to show this tool to my research students to just give them another avenue to search for relevant information. Forget the "I feel lucky" button on a Google search, just type in your question on WolframAlpha and (bam!) it searches to find your answer. If you value Siri on your iPhone, you absolutely need to check out WolframAlpha! Pose a question and WolframAlpha will find an answer for you - in chart form, in graph form ... more specific and focused than Wikipedia in my opinion.

From history facts to math equations to science concepts, WolframAlpha kicks search capabilities up a notch or two (or three!). One of its awesome features is its subject focused fact page. For Chemistry, it looks like this:

And I like the way the answers are presented. It presents multiple perspectives of the answer, providing a basic graphic answer as well as some higher level thinking options as well.

I added Wolfram/Alpha to my Symbaloo webmix. I liked it that much!

If you have not yet given it a whirl, you should. I think it'll knock your socks off. This video highlights some of the cool search features of WolframAlpha:




I am in still a little in awe that I did not know about WolframAlpha until this week. Why did no one share this with me until now? Well, I for one can't wait to share this with my students and colleagues.