Wolfram Alpha “Fact Engine” is Amazing Stats, At Your Fingertips
Last post we talked about Fact Engine of Wolfram Alpha
Do a search on Wolfram Alpha, and if it has matching data, it presents a ton of information on a single page, from figures to charts. For example, a search for “newport beach” not only shows the current temperature and forecast but also provides easy access to historical temperatures, which also get charted:
Looking for the gross domestic product of a country, say France? Wolfram Alpha’s got that:
Housing starts in the United States? Got that:
Want to know how popular the name Daniel is in the United States over time and how many people are currently estimated to be alive with that name, plus their ages? Wolfram Alpha can do that, too — though I wasn’t quick enough to screenshot that example during the demo. We moved fast! But over at Read Write Web, See Wolfram Alpha in Action: Our Screenshots has more examples you can view.
Wolfram Alpha also made a public demo debut this week at Harvard, which you can watch here:
Here’s a shorter version that shows actual screenshots of the service.
David Weinberger also has an excellent summary of the public demo.
