Wolfram Alpha, which launched on May 18, is pulling results from their highly curated, massive database which is likely built atop massive (possibly unstructured) data sets. Google Squared, launched on May 12, is pulling results straight from the unstructured Web. These two approaches are complementary, but they are also competitive.
I'll provide just a couple of examples.
Below is Wolfram Alpha's answer to the query passing touchdowns Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos. Wolfram Alpha is providing a graph of data they probably acquired from a trusted source (they give some source information, but nothing specific).
The same query against Google Squared won't produce a very useful result. But a query for NFL teams results in a table of results pulled from a variety of websites. The data making up the first row is from www.detroitlions.com, a travel website, Wikipedia. Why they are not just taking information from a single trusted site like NFL.com is anyone's guess... it likely has to do with making their search algorithms more generic.
Give these search engines a try and let me know what you think.
I'm sure I'm biased, but google squared doesn't impress me at all. The concept is interesting, but the implementation is plainly lacking. First, why they stick all of this information into a table that is right out of the early ninety's is beyond me. Second, the technology is clearly lacking. For example, consider a square for quarterbacks. Seriously, Brett Favre is at the top? Everyone knows Joe Montana deserves that spot. Come on!
ReplyDeleteWolfram Alpha Blog says it, "Wolfram|Alpha knows quite a bit about the general properties of essentially every language (Spanish, Swahili, ….) But it doesn’t yet know how to interpret input in any language other than English." That is a big defect from the point of view of all non-English speakers.
ReplyDeleteGoogle squared results seem not too good when querying something related to Finland. I tried with "Finnish parties" or "puolue" and got plenty of wrong information.
I like Wolfram Alpha approach better saying just it "isn't sure what to do with your input" instead of giving wrong answers.
I see Wolfram Alpha is great with mobile devices. It shows compressed information in one result page without links. Just the essential. No extra reading required from a small screen.
That said I know the two have different approaches Google getting its information from the Web and Wolfram Alpha from other sources.
Both offerings have a ways to go on the long tail of possible queries. (Listing the Detroit Lions as the first team in the "NFL teams" query has got to be worse than putting Favre first. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think the advantage to Google Squared's table is that it is so simple... you can import it into a spreadsheet or create RDF triples which will aid in the development of the semantic web.
Google Squared appears to be similar to my patent application:
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I am getting a Déjà vu effect while going through the “Google Squared” application because it appears to be very similar in function to my United States patent application which was filed on April 12, 2007 and as publicly disclosed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on October 16, 2008, when the patent application was published.
My patent application is titled as “Method And System For Research Using Computer Based Simultaneous Comparison And Contrasting Of A Multiplicity Of Subjects Having Specific Attributes Within Specific Contexts” bearing Document Number “20080256023” and Inventor name “Nair Satheesh” which may be viewed at http://patft.uspto.gov/ upon Patent Applications: Quick Search.
Google Squared appears to be using at least some if not many of the same methods and systems as set forth by me more than two years ago in my patent application. In fact there are many more methods and systems disclosed in my patent application which I believe will help resolve certain inaccuracies found in current Google Squared application.
I have issued legal notices to Google through my Patent Attorney in the US but Google has not responded yet to any of my notices.
I'm interested to see what happens with your patent issues with Google. Perhaps you and Google can work out a licensing deal?
ReplyDelete