Google Squared and Wolfram Alpha

Get ready for “Search 3.0,” said Christopher Dawson in ZDNET. Google is preparing to release Google Squared, a new tool that will boost the Internet search giant’s researching power by arranging results to help users find what they really need. And it’s no coincidence that Google plans to launch Google Squared around the May 18 release of Wolfram Alpha, which many people expect to push Web search to a higher level.

Google clearly doesn’t intend to surrender its “leadership in the Internet’s most valuable territory,” said Rob Hof in BusinessWeek. Google’s aim is to get better at understanding “people and what they mean.” If it can accomplish that, “neither Twitter nor Wolfram Alpha nor Microsoft is easily going to vault past Google.”

Wolfram Alpha isn’t supposed to be a “Google killer,” said Ian Paul in PC World. The natural-language search engine—which will allow users to get answers to specific questions instead of just providing them links—is meant to supplement, not replace, conventional search engines, according to Wolfram Alpha creator Stephen Wolfram. Wolfram Alpha won’t be able to find movie times or viral video because it won’t index sites—but it will be able to answer questions faster than anybody else.

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