nrjiser's blog: Wolfram Alpha in a Nutshell helps you explain Alpha to non-geeks

Friday, October 29, 2010

Wolfram Alpha in a Nutshell helps you explain Alpha to non-geeks

Wolfram Alpha is fantastic, but it has one big problem: it's not intuitive. I mean, the interface is intuitive enough - it's a Google-esque single text field where you type anything you want. However, the average Web user has become so conditioned to search engines that what Alpha does is not always fully apparent. After all, when you search for something in Alpha you don't get a page with links. You get a bunch of tables, graphs, facts, and figures - the results are right there.

When you use Alpha for the first time, it all becomes quite apparent. But how can you explain Alpha to someone who doesn't know what it is -- and who isn't nerdy enough to try it out on their own? In this new video (also embedded after the fold), the Wolfram crew tries to provide a definitive answer.

The video doesn't feel as polished as similar explanatory videos from Google, but then again, I guess the amount of resources Wolfram has doesn't really compare. Still, it is a good effort and it's an easy way to illustrate the concept.

Now, if they could just come up with a tagline that's a bit less clumsy than "computational knowledge engine"...