Wolfram Alpha, a new search engine hailed as a possible Google killer, officially launched Monday amid hype and curiosity.

CNN introduces us to the new website.

“Well first of all its not a search engine, it’s a computational knowledge engine.  Roughly translated, that means that this site, Wolfram Alpha figures out results for you based on its own databases, not by scanning the web.  In some cases the data’s pretty extensive.  Mathematical information, there’s physics searches you can do, historical data.” (CNN)

NPR points out a big difference between Google and Wolfram Alpha.  It says Wolfram has the ability to provide more data in response to search queries.

“Try this, Google this phrase “shortest vice president.” You’ll 
get a lot of hits that tell you the VP who served for the shortest or
 fewest number of days. You may get many links that may contain a Dick
 Cheney quotes that containing the word shortest, but no actual 
information on who the shortest vice president is…. Enter Wolfram Alpha” (NPR)

Is this a Google killer? The Telegraph brings us a quote from Wolfram Alpha’s creator, who says ‘no’!

"I am not keen on the hype," he said. "[Although] I think Wolfram Alpha has the potential to be quite important." (The Telegraph)

Ars Technica, a technology website, points out that Wolfram Alpha has shortcomings in the reliability of its results.

“Data on my search result page indicated that, in 2003, global human activity led to 27 Gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions. But it also indicated that, in 2000, the US produced 40 Gigatons during cement production alone. One of these has got to be wrong, and Alpha gives you absolutely no way of finding out which …” (Ars Technica)

CNet.com responds to this criticism by saying that if the people use the right search terms, they will get the right answers.

“Its no replacement for Google, but it has the potential to be the smartest search utility on the web if only the people using it are smart enough to know how.” (CNet.com)