This weekend Wolfram Alpha (the new search engine) opened to the public. Wolfram Alpha is supposed to be the most accurate search engine due to the fact that it compiles data from a number of different sources.

A few weeks back I wrote a post about Wolfram Alpha and said that Wolfram Alpha wasn’t the Internet revolution expected by some. I maintain that this new search engine is a good evolutionary step but is far away from a new internet age.

Wolfram Alpha is easy as Google to use. Just enter almost any question and it is going to find the answer with a lot of extra detail. For certain topics Wolfram Alpha offers some interesting graphs.

Wolframe Alpha

Graph Wolfram Alpha

Sometimes, however, the answers are not the most obvious. For example if you are looking for information on‘Clovis’ (who was the first king of France), Wolfram Alpha will provide information about the town ‘Clovis’ in the California. Even with the keywords ‘Clovis France’ Wolfram Alpha does not bring up the expected link, contrary to Google’s results.

Wolfram Alpha - Clovis

Wolfram Alpha seems more like a Wikipedia search engine with exception that the information is accurate but also with less detail. Wolfram Alpha is a good tool with excellent technologies but once again it is not a revolution….

Wikipedia is the largest free online encyclopedia with over 12 million pages. It is funded by donations and volunteers (‘admins’) ensure the accuracy of the pages.

A few months ago a young Irish student from Dublin (Shane Fitzgerald) posted a fake poetic quote on the Maurice Jarre Wikipedia page following his death. Some newspapers (including the Guardian) used Shane’s quote in articles on the passing of the musician.

Maurice Jarre Wikipedia

Obviously some journalists did not check the accuracy and the source of the quote. However,Shane Fitzgerald’s experiment has sparked a debate about the accuracy and monitoring of Wikipedia.

Most people know that Wikipedia is not 100% correct all of the time but nevertheless it is regarded as a trustworthy source. It is easy to overlook the fact that it is still very easy to put pretty much whatever you want on it.

It is even easier when you have an auto-approve user login (once 10 of your modifications have been approved). All you have to do is to write something plausible on one of the less popular Wikipedia pages and here we go!

I tried this experiment for you using my boss (Maurice Lévy)! I added :‘Maurice Lévy is also famous for his quote ‘Viva la différence’ which is now the tagline of Publicis Group.’ to his Wikipedia page.

This statement is totally incorrect but plausible. In two minutes I have changed a Wikipedia page… now lets see how long this statement will stay on Wikipedia.

Maurice Levis Wikipedia

Fake Quote Wikipedia

This example shows how is easy to modify for at least a few minutes/hours a Wikipedia page and if you target the right page at the right moment you can do some damage!

Wikipedia is still a nice and useful tool but do be careful to double check the facts.

Wolfram Alpha is the new search engine which answers your question directly. Created by British physicist Stephen Wolfram, this new system will compile knowledge in order to give an accurate answer.

It is very simple to use the Wolfram Alpha system, ask a question, for example ‘How many miles is the marathon?’ and Wolfram Alpha will compile information and give you the correct answer.

Wolfram Alpha

This new way to search is considered by some blogs and newspapers as the top of the top. Even the Independent paper wrote ‘The biggest internet revolution for a generation’.

From my point of view this new system is an evolution but we are far from an Internet revolution! It is more or less Wikipedia , the only exception being that the answers are 99% of the time correct. Small revolution…Wikipedia is a pretty trustworthy source anyway.

And sometimes you want to know more than the answer (although Wolfram Alpha will propose to you relevant results).

Rumours are that Wolfram Alpha is looking for a partnership with Wikipedia and Google. And I think this is where Wolfram Alpha software will be very useful. This can improve the Google result (and add the function ‘answer a question’) and improve the veracity of Wikipedia. I think that Wolfram Alpha is more of an addition to an existing technology than a new product by itself. Because I don’t see users switching all the time between Google, Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha.

Once again the future will tell us…

Everybody knows about the controversial statement by Carrie Prejean (Miss California) who answered a question about gay marriage during the election of Miss USA. A radical reaction in the USA was provoked by the un-politically correct answer.

The judge, Perez Hilton, who asked the question during the election has since started a campaign against Miss Prejean via his blog.

Since the election the number of searches has blown up and there are more people who are looking for Miss California or Carrie Prejean than for Miss USA.

Miss California - Google Trends

It is interesting to see what Carrie Prejean or the Miss California Organisation did or neglected to do in order to manage the crisis.

Miss California Organisation posted an official statement on its official website. It is of course a typical reaction, but many other companies forget to do so.

Miss California Official Statement

YouTube was the war ground between the two parties and it seems that Miss California has posted more content and has exposed more people to her point of view. The videos regarding this event have been the most watched videos of the week.

Youtube Miss California

On Facebook a number of support groups for Carrie Prejean have been created with a large number of followers. Less groups against her have been formed.

Carrie Prejean Facebook Group

On Wikipedia, the controversy section is more or less objective. I guess nobody tried to influence the result of Wikipedia.

Carrie Prejean Wikipedia

On Twitter there is not so much of the Carrie Prejean propaganda as her page (or maybe a fake one) doesn’t work anymore. The page of Perez Hilton has a few comments about the event.

Carrie Prejean Twitter

At the end of the day, I am not sure how much did Carrie Prejean, Miss California organisation, or her fanbase did to mitigate the crisis. However, the winner of the online battle seems to be Carrie Prejean who made herself available to more people than Perez Hilton and his supporters.

Bo is the newest furriest member of the Obama family. The new pup is a black and white Portuguese Water Dog. He may be only 6 months old but already has a huge online presence!

The number of online searches over the last few days for ‘Bo Obama’ has exploded. Google Trends show that in a few days the number of searches and the number of pages relevant to the subject will continue to increase considerably.

Bo Google Trends

There is a Wikipedia entry where we can find all the information about him.

Wikipedia Bo

 The White House has also set up a doggy-blog for the best friend of Sasha,
 

Bo Blog White House

as well as a video page on Vimeo where we can watch the first family playing with dog in the White House.

It is the first time that the American government has started an online campaign for an animal. The weird part of it is that based on Google information and the ranking of the news (from Yahoo US) people really care about this little dog.

Strange times people…one day, dogs will have Facebook and Twitter