From what I’ve been seeing so far, I’m not seeing Wolfram|Alpha as being a Google killer. For certain kinds of searches, it will be very important, as you note. But overall? I don’t think so.

There’s something on CNN.com notes that Wolfram|Alpha “is more of an enormous calculator than a search: It crunches data to come up with query answers that may not exist online until you search for them.”* So, it’s not exactly doing the same thing as Google — thus, to suggest that it’s a Google killer is to compare the proverbial apple with an orange.

If Wolfram|Alpha does take off, I suspect it will be much as the CNN.com article suggests: it will supplement Google, but not kill it. It’s doing something very different from what Google does, and will likely be a useful niche search engine.

As the CNN.com article notes, Cuil tried to topple Google last year, but went nowhere. My thought is that a number of niche search engines like Wolfram|Alpha will continued to be developed, but, unless someone comes up with something revolutionary, or the company itself goes under, Google will continue to be the top dawg of the search engine pack.

That’s my take on it. That, and $2, gets you a medium coffee at the local coffee shop.

Thanks for commenting!

*(The full link is here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/12/future.search.engine/index.html?iref=t2test_techtues&eref=rss_topstories — I’ll post this link again on Friday.)

http://www.sagerock.com/blog/wolframalpha-not-google-killer/