Wolfram Alpha is a database-driven search engine with advanced mathematics abilities
Wolfram Alpha is computational knowledge search engine. You can find answers to everything (almost). To use the website, Wolfram has stated, “All one needs to be able to do is to take questions people ask in natural language, and represent them in a precise form that fits into the computations one can do.” So basically remember you are talking to a computer when you ask Wolfram Alpha questions.
So how does it have the answers to everything?
Okay, so it does not actually have the answers to everything. But it is a game changing service that comes close. Type in any math equation. Wolfram will solve it for you 10 different ways with 50 different graphs. Ask it what the freezing temperature of water is. It combines the power of 15 million lines of Mathematica code with a huge database of information. The possible applications are governed only by your creativity. If you would like to see a comprehensive list of examples, check out this list. Otherwise, below the article you will see a gallery of screenshots demonstrating some of our favorite applications of the service that has answers to everything.
Wolfram Alpha powers the iPhone’s voice recognition service (Siri)
Apple realized that Wolfram Alpha has the answers to everything. This is why they integrated Wolfram Alpha into Siri. Siri would not be possible without Wolfram Alpha. For those of you who do not know what Siri is, you can read about it on Apple’s Siri FAQ. They rely on Wolfram Alpha’s search to accomplish any knowledge based computing. Siri would not be able to answer “What does poison oak look like Siri?” if it were not for Wolfram. If you would like to read more, check out Business Insider’s article titled “Meet Wolfram Alpha, The Mind Blowing Intelligence Service That Powers Siri”.
