Wolfram Alpha given keys to the Bingdom
Microsoft has inked a deal with Wolfram Alpha, making its Bing search engine a high-profile customer of the egghead web product’s API. Financial details of the agreement were kept secret. Wolfram Alpha, which went live in May this year, recently confirmed that code junkies could now slot the computational knowledge engine into …
Sorry, just hard to care what Bing does... It's about as relevant as the Zune- and has a stupid bloody name, to boot.
Wolfram Alpha also ceased to be interesting once the charging structure and ludicrous attribution policy hit- so maybe it's a match made in heaven.
Find better mobile phone deals and more relevant porn?
No? Oh well, nothing to see here then for the everyday punter. I'll stick with Scroogle.
should not faff about and just buy Wolfram Alpha. It would give them an instantaneous differentiator to Google and allow them to drive the company in the direction that suits them and not the direction of the ego-manic in charge. This might just work, especially if the service was free.
Bing IS a stupid name but then, when you actually think about it, so is Google. I mean, come on - Google. Just because you're used to it doesn't mean that so many people spent a long time laughing at the silliness of the name.
The one worry I have here is that if Wolfram Alpha provided unbiased information, wouldn't it be completely against the whole point of it to pipe it's data through to Bing or anyone else - companies that make a fortune out of biasing their data?
Nuh-uh. Not for people who knew the word before the company. The genius of spelling googol differently makes it verbable. Which isn't a word.
Bing Is Not Google on the other hand.
..then yes, it is a stupid name. Mine's the one with the googolplex dollars in the pocket, drinks on me, etc etc.
Though, oddly, if you look for "google" in OED, you also get
google, v
intr. Of the ball: to have a ‘googly’ break and swerve. Of the bowler; to bowl a googly or googlies; also (trans.), to give a googly break to (a ball). Hence {sm}googler, a googly bowler.
Anyhow, "bing", like "zune" is silly branding-consultant speak, Microsoft trying to be less corporate and be quirky is like watching a Dad Dancing competition at a family wedding.
Wow, this is awesome. It's heartening to see Wolfram and Microsoft working to package two services together that no one on the web gives a fuck about.
Well done.
But buying Wolfram Alpha won't help Bing where it needs the most help. The last time I used Bing or Live or whatever search it is called this year, it couldn't find ice at the north pole in the middle of winter. That was actually a few months ago. I don't like what Google is doing, but I care about results. And the fact is, I can find what I need faster on Google. Until that changes, I will still use Google.
Furthermore, someone needs to tell Microsoft that you don't need to do everything. Let someone else make money for a change.
.. one of my leopard gecko's eggs showed signs of hatching this morning. More news at 22:00.
/wallace&Gromit penguin as it's hatching more plots.
I hope Bing gains traction. Google is far too dominant in this arena and they're becoming a little too creapy in my opinion.
If you don't want Labour to win the next election, voting BNP is not the best way to go about it.
Add an "E" to the end of Bing and now you have a name that is fitting for them.
This is about as important as the news that the House of Commons dinner ladies had a chat during their break yesterday.
