When A Search Engine Isn't A Search Engine

The other day, I read a story whose headline hailed a new software that would quite possibly "change the Internet forever."  

Jeesh, sounds pretty important.  I'll bite.

The website is WolframAlpha, and the story goes on to suggest that it's significance lies in the fact that the software will be able to communicate in everyday language, rather than computer-speak:

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does....The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

There are limitations, though, especially when it comes to pop culture:

Wolfram Alpha has been designed with professionals and academics in mind, so its grasp of popular culture is, at the moment, comparatively poor. The term "50 Cent" caused "absolute horror" in tests, for example, because it confused a discussion on currency with the American rap artist. For this reason alone it is unlikely to provide an immediate threat to Google, which is working on a similar type of search engine, a version of which it launched last week.

It's expected to launch in May 2009, which I hope is more accurate than the original "day after Staff Development Day" introduction of the new Workflows.  At any rate, it will be interesting to use and see how this tool affects reference services.