Re:Tell HN: Wolfram Alpha preview goes live
by aaronsw on Friday May 08, 2009 @07:43PM
(#600477)
You can't do computation with those results. At the first level, this means you have to click a link and load a page. But it also means that you can't ask compound questions ("What films did Orson Welles make that star Ruth Warrick?"). And you can't use the answers in other programs thru an API.
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That query on Freebase, ready to compose and consume as JSON: http://tinyurl.com/on79u3
Just tried your query and got perfect results in Google, right at the top. And I'm yet to see how WA answers that question. I think it may be able to answer it, but only if it was designed to understand this particular kind of questions and if particular pieces of information were selected for inclusion in WA's database.
WA, to my understanding is not entirely self-regulating like the Google/Web bundle and thus it will be difficult for WA to catch up. We'll see.
If the question is a commonly asked one, someone will build a service to answer it. And that person could also provide an API.
It seems like you're asking for something like what Wolfram has built.