What if a free web site could answer queries like “france fish production” (number of metric tons produced, pounds per second, comparison to NYC trash rate) or “weather princeton, day when kurt godel died”? Would that change your world just a little or be “a stunt that could still end in disaster“? A task that would have been much easier with the semantic web is being carried out in its absence by Wolfram Research. The free WolframAlpha web site is expected next month. Keep an eye out for it. Meanwhile, Joho the Blog provides a liveblog with a few more examples of what WolframAlpha should be able to do. Wolfram explains what’s up at Harvard.
