Google. Amazing to think the company was founded just over 10 years ago in September 1998. What will the coming decade bring? According to an article in The Independent, one to watch is Wolfram Alpha, touted as ‘the biggest Internet revolution for a generation’ which could ‘put giants such as Google in the shade.’
What is it? Wolfram Alpha is a new ‘computational knowledge engine’ that answers questions in the language and context of ordinary people. So rather than getting a list of search results, you get answers.
According to the piece, ‘The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out “on the fly”, according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in “10 flips for four heads” and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.’
Sounds compelling. But will Google need to worry just yet? Not likely. It’s designed for academics and professionals and lacks in its ability to contextualize popular culture terms and concepts. Nonetheless, quite interesting and a milestone in the world of artificial intelligence and realization of the Semantic Web.
What else is coming in the decade ahead? Taking the ’sixth sense’ concept to the real world, MIT is doing some interesting work in melding information and data to our every day environment, as described in a Ted.com talk by Pattie Maes of MIT Media Lab’s new Fluid Interfaces Group.
Let’s not worry about the implications to marketing and advertising just yet…
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