Have you heard of "Wolfram Alpha"?

After the carpet-bombing of tech blogs, I had assumed everyone had already heard of Wolfram Alpha, but in a few conversations with non-techie friends I am learning it is still news to many. This new search engine is an attempt to provide a true alternative to Google. Instead of providing links to web pages in its results, Wolfram Alpha takes a more semantic approach to information and tries to answer the underlying question directly. For example, if you search for "freezing point of water", you get: 0 degrees Celsius along with a series of common conversions to other temperature standards. The same query on Google brings up a list of articles from Wikipedia and the like on the phenomenon of freezing.

Which is better? Ultimately, it depends on what you are looking for. For 99% of what I need a search engine for, Google provides a better summary of the "collective wisdom and knowledge" of the web. But there is that 1% time when I need pure dry facts and Wolfram Alpha provides those quickly and without clutter. I suspect Wolfram Alpha will become a favorite of primary school math and science students looking for exam answers, for example. Still, Wolfram is in the "alpha" stage of development (i.e. the earliest stable form) and may grow into something bigger. It is worth watching and waiting to see.