Wolfram Alpha To Hit 100 Million Queries

For 45 minutes we discussed the concept of Wolfram Alpha, the difficulties of parsing language, how social media helps filter information, and even the ability to analyze multimedia. Dr. Wolfram also revealed that Wolfram Alpha is set to exceed 100 million queries.

Because nothing is more fun than trying to find the flaws in a machine we quickly discovered that the designers of the answer engine had a sense of humor. Wolfram Alpha doesn’t know everything, and isn’t supposed to be a pop culture reference tool. But it does “know,” among other things, that the answer to the secret of life is “42″ — according to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anyway — and that 88 MPH is the speed Marty McFly needs to reach in his flux-capacitor-modded DeLorean to travel in time.

So, the first major update to Wolfram Alpha is here, and the list of changes and improvements is quite long. [...] Out of these, the first one is probably most important; the fact that Wolfram Alpha now understands more linguistic forms means it’ll understand you better, and thus provide better results overall. Also, the fact that Wolfram Alpha now answers more self-aware questions probably means we’ll soon have another list of Wolfram Alpha easter eggs for you.