I was able to try out Wolfram-Alpha at its Web site (http://www.wolframalpha.com). I don’t know that I’d call it a “search engine”, exactly. More like a “reference desk” or “oracle” like Siri. Big difference is that it didn’t produce a long list of links to other Web pages, it attempted to answer my question right then and there. That’s likely to be good and bad depending on the query. When I entered my name, it just proceeded to analyze the frequency of my first and last name in the population. (Bit of a downer, BTW: Almost nobody is being named “Robert” any more. It’s like the name is being erased from history.) It wasn’t obvious how I could have reworded my query to get more search-engine-like results; where on a search engine, I already know various ways to vary my search terms or order, stuff like that, to narrow-in on what I’m looking for.

I suspect everybody does this on all new search thingies: “What is the meaning of life?” This really showed its bias toward finding the one right answer: It assumed I meant Douglas Adams’ form of the question, and gave me “42″ and a two-sentence explanation of the source, but also offered to switch to the Monty Python meaning of life question. Very Siri-like.

There’s an Android app as well as Apple, and apparently a downloadable PC program (how retro!). It’s funny, you’d think I wouldn’t hesitate to drop $2.99 to try it out…but I guess I worry about app purchases getting away from me, and finding myself having spent hundreds of bucks on hundreds of apps I don’t need. Buying an app is dangerously easy through those app stores. So I’m going to see what you and others have to say. But I’m leaning toward buying it.

Interesting find, Frank. Glad you brought it up.