Screenshots: A tour of Wolfram Alpha
CNET News has been taking a preview version of Wolfram Alpha for a spin. Here's a guide to some of its abilities.
Wolfram Alpha girl names
Wolfram Alpha's public launch is due in a couple weeks, but I've been putting a preview version of the Wolfram Research site through its paces. Overall, I see it as a cross between a graphing calculator, a reference library, and a search engine. Even though it's limited in some ways and it can be finicky about formatting queries in the correct syntax, the service is fun to explore. Wolfram has licensed some of the data from private sources, so not all of what it can show and process is the sort of thing you'll find online through your average Google search.
Vanity searches take on a different meaning with Alpha. Instead of finding out how influential you are on the Web, you find out whether your parents were following the herd or bucking the trend when they named you all those years ago. Michelle and Jennifer were popular names in the 1970s. The Emma trend looks to have peaked in 2004, but Sophia is still on the rise.