Wolfram Alpha will fail for the same reason that Microsoft failed at search.

Re:Wolfram Alpha will fail for the same reason that Microsof... by amichail on Sunday May 17, 2009 @03:25AM (#613142)

The notion of having every query answered in a reasonable way applies to all sorts of things -- not just search engines.

I suspect that Microsoft's failure in this regard would play out in many other contexts including this one. Imagine for example if Mathematica were to have a much higher failure rate.

Mathematica works as well as it does because an enormous amount of research has been put into one domain. Wolfram Alpha is not like that at all.

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Re:Wolfram Alpha will fail for the same reason that Microsof... by 10ren on Sunday May 17, 2009 @05:38AM (#613227)

No one expects Mathematica to be a search engine. However, many people (not just you) expect WA to be a search engine, even though it clearly is not one.

It's a matter of expectation.

And it seems likely that creating this expectation is a deliberate ploy on WA's part to create publicity. "Google killer" is a much better media story than "mathematica online". They've designed the front page in a google-style, with a similar text interface, and probably many other ways I haven't noticed.

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