It's Wolf Time

No, this isn't a review of Wolverine, even though summer movie season beckons. At AIRS News, we're focused on the small screen.

And debuting on the screen nearest you is a new Real Tool, Wolfram Alpha, which its creators bill as the world's first computational knowledge engine.

The tool is the flagship product of Wolfram Alpha LLC, a subsidiary of Wolfram Research, a pioneer in computational science best known for computational software Mathematica.

With Wolfram Alpha, the company has taken computation in a new direction, namely to the online search process.

The company indicates the long-term goal of the computational knowledge engine is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.

What exactly does this mean?

In announcing the launch of Wolfram Alpha, Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, explains it this way: "Fifty years ago, when computers were young, people assumed that they'd be able to ask a computer any factual question, and have it compute the answer. I'm happy to say that we've successfully built a system that delivers knowledge from a simple input field, giving access to a huge system, with trillions of pieces of curated data and millions of line of algorithms. Wolfram Alpha signals a new paradigm for using computers and the Web."

How do you use it?

All you do is enter a question or calculation and Wolfram Alpha returns the answer.

The site provides sample inputs and sample topics on the homepage, but clicking through "more" allows you to see additional examples by topic.

The wide range of search fields includes almost every area imaginable, from mathematics, engineering, and various scientific fields to socioeconomic data, weather, education, and more.

What kind of information can you find using Wolfram Alpha?

Almost anything that involves statistics or data. For example, entering the word unemployment, the name of a city and town, and the year 2009 returns the current unemployment rate for a given area, as in this example for Findlay, Ohio, home of AIR's parent company, The RightThing.

Entering an occupation, on the other hand, returns a wealth of information, as in this example for accountant.

Recruiters and professionals from nearly every field will find countless ways to draw on the power of Wolfram Alpha. What's more, as a personal resource it's equally useful.

In a world where few new screenings live up to the anticipation and hype, Wolfram Alpha is different. For right now at least, this summer's blockbuster Real Tool is way ahead of the pack.