Wolfram|Alpha is generating tons of buzz lately. From
Readwrite Web:
Instead of searching the web for info, Alpha is built around a vast repository of curated data from public and licensed sources. Alpha then organizes and computes this knowledge with the help of sophisticated Natural Language Processing algorithms. Users can ask Alpha any kind of question, which can be constructed just like a Google search (think: "hurricane bob" or "carbon steel strength").
Where Alpha exceeds, is in the presentation of its "search" results. When asked for how many internet users there are in Europe, for example, Alpha returned not just the total number, but also various plots and data for every country (apparently Vatican City only has 93 Internet users).
Another query with a very sophisticated result was "uncle's uncle's brother's son." Now if you type that into Google, the result will be a useless list of sites that don't even answer this specific question, but Alpha actually returns an interactive genealogic tree with additional information, including data about the 'blood relationship fraction,' for example (3.125% in this case).
If anything, Wolfram's significance is that it brings back CURATED (authority) data sources instead of Informal and organic (and not always accurate) group authored sites like Wikipedia and, in a differing format, Twitter search. The problem with curated sources has always revolved around AVAILABILITY and REACH. Wikipedia and the Internet's mottly collection of self-authored and lifted content solve (imperfectly) this problem. Wolfram does a great job of presenting the data... but can it keep up with the exponential growth of all the search queries out there?