Earlier this week, I heard Conrad Alpha speak at the TEDxBrussels convention. The man, a big force in the popular mathematics company, argued that computational aid at school should not be considered cheating. Computational aid, like Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha. In fact, declining these readily available tools is cheating. This discussion will lead to a rethinking of [...]
A new study has found that people aren't just using internet search engines for fact-finding missions but as part of their learning processes. The study extensively looked at 72 participants, who partook in 426 searching tasks. Researchers at Penn State University found that instead of looking for new information, search engines are primarily used to fact check information that you already know. Moving...
Microsoft has launched a new site for Bing, where users can go to find out the latest features that have been implemented into the search engine (excuse me, "decision engine"). The site's called Behind Bing . "You can see each feature in action though a screencast, see me talk about why we did it the way we did (for those who like to geek out), and get some drill-down details,"...
eWeek reports on Tim O'Reilly's prediction of a shift towards openness at Microsoft. " At the Web 2.0 Expo, Tim O'Reilly predicts that Microsoft will emerge as a leading proponent of the open Web, despite the company's tradition of fostering its own proprietary operating systems and development languages. O'Reilly says Microsoft's recent deals to index Twitter tweets and use Wolfram Alpha's APIs...
Remember the flurry of new features Bing rolled out last week? Bing announced Wolfram Alpha results for nutrition searches, more in-depth weather results, enhanced hover previews, better maps , and turned MSN Video into Bing Videos . Well, it turns out it is also quietly launched another feature which highlights the latest posts from news sites. If you do a search for "TechCrunch" or "New...
NewScientist - 11.17.2009 by Justin Mullins When the search engine Wolfram Alpha launched earlier this year, the interest was huge. Enticed by a well-oiled publicity machine, web users swamped the site and its servers were overwhelmed. Then everything went quiet – so quiet that it was easy to imagine that Alpha would follow countless Google wannabes to the great search engine directory in the...
From New Scientist: When the search engine Wolfram Alpha launched earlier this year, the interest was huge. Enticed by a well-oiled publicity machine, web users swamped the site and its servers were overwhelmed. Then everything went quiet – so quiet that it was easy to imagine that Alpha would follow countless Google wannabes to the great search engine directory in the sky. That was to reckon...
Internet is trying to eat itself Web visionary, Tim O'Reilly, has suggested that the we could be heading into an "ugly time" on the internet mirroring the browser wars of the nineties. Talking at the Web 2.0 expo in New York, O'Reilly warned that a number of moves by big organisations like Apple, Google, Facebook and Digg could make the web a closed system. O'Reilly believes that things...
Remember all that talk about Bing starting to fizzle in September? Well it didn't happen , and now October numbers and Bing gained another half a point to reach 9.9 percent market share of U.S. searches, according to comScore's qSearch service. Five months after launch , Bing has steadily gained two points of market share. And it is keeping the pressure on, with deals to index realtime data streams...
Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, continues to slowly but steadily gain market share. During October, Bing represented 9.9% of the market, up from 9.4% in September, according to comScore. That's up from 8.4% in June -- an 18% improvement. That is significant, but not overwhelming. Yahoo got slammed, losing almost a full percentage point of the market, to 18.0%, down from 18.8% in September. Google...
Type 2+2 into Google and you get 4, not a list of pages. Try 2^2^2^2^2 though and you’ll defeat it. Wolfram Alpha will tell you (and probably sneer slightly at your inability to do the calculation in your head) but can’t understand what you mean if you ask it for an apple pie recipe. Wolfram Alpha, as the men with giant brains behind it are at pains to point out, is not a search engine....
Microsoft launched a handful of new initiatives for both consumers and businesses this week. In addition to Exchange Server 2010, the new version of its messaging and collaboration platform, Microsoft also added features to Bing, including a more robust video page and search results from Wolfram Alpha, a computational engine that nominally returns a single numerical answer or chart in response to a...
As I read the new york times article , I was trying to make some sense out of it. I hope I am not the first person on the Internet to make the connection but I think this patent application probably makes sense. More than just premium products: With mass adoption of the iPod and iPhone line-up, Apple is not an "exclusive" market player. Especially withe the iPhone (and the iPod Touch), Apple...
It's time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we've selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what's going on out there! <!--break--> We want to give a big thanks to our sponsors: Wix , ShutterStock , Reflex Stock , W3-Markup , P2H.COM...
Microsoft announced a broad range of new functionality for Bing, its search engine, on Nov. 11. In addition to incorporating results from Wolfram Alpha, a computational engine that provides a definitive numerical answer to a search query, the revamped Bing offers a more robust video page with feeds from MSN Video, Hulu, and ABC and more intensive search in categories such as local events and cities....