I’m kinda always wondering, why is it impossible to build something better than Google ? Sure, it’s been only ten years that Google exists but in the tech world, ten years equals to twenty years or something like this. Yet, Google had lots of rivals. I believe Yahoo! is the most historic one but recently, Google’s got to face two new and powerful contestants. Bing (Kumo) & WolframAlpha.
Bing
Bing is the name of Microsoft’s new Live Search. Apparently, it’ll be more powerful et cae tera. I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t believe what I haven’t seen; especially when it’s about Microsoft…
But, more recently, today to be more precise, I saw that Kumo could be renamed Bing. Kumo was apparently only a code-name. So sources near Microsoft reported to PCWorld that there’s going to be a massive ad campaign to show people why Bing was better than Google. Really ? I may be very sceptical but I think I’m realistic. So wait & see folks.
WolframAlpha
WA is a very good search engine, in its domain. A “computational” knowledge engine. The concept is absolutly brilliant. You ask a question, literally; why is the sky blue ? How many roads must a man walk down ? It has very precise answers.
That’s it. What ? I haven’t answered to the original question ?
Well…
Everybody trusts Google, it may be as simple as that.
I called a friend yesterday, we were talking about some history, I can’t accurately remember but I think it was all about Napoleonic stuff. “When did Napoleon Bonaparte die ?” WolframAlpha result & Google’s. See the difference; now ? WolframAlpha knows it because it learned it. The primary, original source for this answer was Encyclopedia Britannica. Google uses other websites, without learning to find an answer. Logically, WolframAlpha is more accurate. But if you type “Facebook” in WA, it’ll give you more informations than simply the link to the website. And yet, nobody is used to that. Google is more effective for day to day tasks but I’d say, now, less professionnal and accurate than WA.
Now, you can juggle from this website to that website but it’d be, you know, useless.
