There's a new Web tool in town today, and it's (somewhat unwieldy) name is Wolfram Alpha. It's a computational, question and answer engine (it is NOT a search engine, it does NOT scour the Web for information) that will give you statistical-type answers for whatever query you might come up with. For instance:
- Why is the sky blue?
- pi to 1000 digits
- GDP per capita Norway / United States
- and many more examples here.
You'll want to be very specific if you do decide to use Wolfram Alpha; it responds better that way. Give it a try, you might like its simplicity and ability to cut straight to the meat of your questions. As I said already, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. Think of it as a super-charged calculator that not only knows how to crunch numbers, but all sorts of statistical data.
Question and Answer Search Engines: If you're looking for a specific topic with a relatively narrow focus, question and answer search engines might just be what you're looking for. These search engines aggregate the vast resources of the Web into strictly defined categories; in other words, they make it extremely easy to find something.
Try searching on Wendy. I found it interesting.
wolfram alpha-under FAQ. answer to first question; No, we are not a SEARCH ENGINE.
This is a nice geeky little search engine that has a very long way, very, very long before it is at all useful to the general public. I entered the name of a local hospital. It just broke down totally. Really, I think this stuff is going to be almost next to useless. Cordially, jfq
i checked out this site and I really like it. but then again i has a fascination with mathematical stuff.