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.
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?
..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.
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.
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