I spent yesterday lamenting the rise of theoretical Google and iPhone killers, now it is a reality check. Following the demonstration of the WA yesterday, I was expecting a deluge of negative press. I was expecting a wild ride of people saying that it was in fact, the next Cuil. I was proved wrong. Head over to TechMeme, the press is surprisingly lukewarm. I was wildly excited. In all honesty, after the Cuil fiasco, lukewarm at this stage is incredible.
Now, people are tripping over their heels to claim that this is “no google killer,” fair enough. But, as Twitter gave us “the message service we didn’t know that we needed,” I have a sneaking suspicion that WolframAlpha will give us the answer engine we didn’t know that we needed. Note that this is not a pure search engine. Recall that that was in fact what Cuil claimed to be. This is something different, new, and possibly extraordinary.
So, until they let us into the WolframAlpha Alpha, we will wait. But trust us, the moment we know anything, you will haer it loud and clear. Long live competiton.
