Wolfram is Aiming For Profits
Wolfram Alpha hopes to pay for itself in two ways When it goes live, Some deals for these are already in place for when the site goes live, though Wolfram didn’t reveal which companies will show there.
Certainly no self-serve AdWords-like system appears in the works. Unlike traditional search ads, these don’t appear to be cost-per-click driven, The right-side of pages — the “right-rail” in search engine vernacular — will carry sponsorships
Will this all make the service eventually profitable?
“I hope it will be. I’ve invested quite a lot of money in it, as you can guess. I certainly hope to make that money back, otherwise it is a very grand piece of philanthropy on my part,” Wolfram said, with a chuckle.
There will also be a corporate version eventually, which will allow users to do queries that involve heavy amounts of computation, to upload their own data in bulk or download data sets. The company also envisions licensing out private versions of the service and is still planning other offerings.
As for the business issues still to be determined?
“I’m one of those people who doesn’t go for, ‘Let’s make an absolutely precise business plan’,” Wolfram said.
