Imagine our existence explained by a single algorithm responsible for the rules of physics and everything else, that boils down to a simple computational process of a few lines of code? Touted by some as a Google Killer, Wolfram Alpha is a new “computational knowledge engine” designed to connect searchers with exact information by combining natural language processing and the web’s vast amount of organized and computable data.

Wolfram Alpha is the brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, a British born scientific genius who at the age of 15 years published his first paper, and at 20 years obtained his PHD in theoretic physics from CalTech. By late 1981 he set out to explore the origin of complexity. His book “A New Kind of Science” is the result of his extraordinary discovery – a discovery some say as profound a discovery as the concept of gravity.

“A New Kind of Science” is a 1200 page encyclopedia chalk full of computer experiments, diagrams, photographs, and even seashells, but its findings are extraordinary. Stephen Wolfram discovered how systems by their very nature break down but that from the chaos order is created. In determining search results Wolfram Alpha thinks about all the computations that people might think about or would want to do and then identifies ways that those computations could be strung together to delivery relevancy. Wolfram Alpha offers a type of hybrid search experience between Google and Wikipedia.

Search to date has largely been based on words and phrases and algorithms created by Google and the other search engines to filter out the junk on the web. Sometimes the process works but other times we want more, and because of this search can be frustrating. With Wolfram Alpha search is not limited to answers to questions already asked. It understands the question and using math it quantifies knowledge in an understandable format to answer certain questions. But you need to know how to use it. For example if you want the answer to how to configure a particular wireless router you could get an immediate response from Wolfram Alpha without the 500 pages of commercial websites that Google would return with the same inputted search. You would still however go to Google to search what local movie theatre was showing Star Wars.

It is very early in the launch so it is difficult to determine how searchers will respond to Wolfram Alpha. As with any semantic approach to indexing the world’s data this is an continuing project of immense proportions. On the surface though, it looks like Wolfram Alpha is a niche type search alternative that will appeal to certain groups like students, researchers, lawyers or analysts. Where the technology will take off will be in the hands of mashup experts. In fact, this little search engine ‘wanna be’ has at its core a very saleable technological asset that could be the answer to the growing consumer need for a more verticalized approach to search.

Hmm…wonder who will buy it?