"As for Wolfram Alpha, it might be amazing when it comes out (Tim O’Reilly tells me I’ll be impressed, and I count his opinion pretty highly). But if so, it will go against the odds. So far, it just keeps tossing up the red flags on my list that lead to disappointment." - Bret Taylor from Bookmarklet

Why is Wolfram Alpha even being considered as a search engine? Just to get attention, or because people can't grasp a new concept? It's basically a natural language calculator. Sure, it would be nice as a onebox fronting a search engine so you can type your expressions in the same place you type your web searches, but it's a totally different thing. It doesn't even make sense to evaluate it against normal web search queries. - ⓞnor

Sullivan's #3 isn't even true here -- nobody is calling this "the next Google". Even Lenat the uberhypemaster compares it to Google only to point out how it occupies a very different space. And why would you brief Danny Sullivan for something that isn't a search engine? - ⓞnor

ⓞnor - I agree. I feel like Danny (whom I respect considerably) had an outline of this post burning in the back of his head for a while from all the other over-hyped search engines of recent years, and the Wolfram Alpha launch just pushed him over the top to write it, even though it didn't apply here. I say this because no one, especially not Wolfram, is saying this is a search engine (of the general sort). - DeWitt Clinton

Chris White: For #4 (big name irrelevant to search), see also Bill Clinton and... dang, what was their name? That's right: Accoona. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id... - Matt Cutts

Why did it become "overhype" instead of "hype", anyway? Did we decide a little exaggeration is appropriate? - Jutta Degener

Jutta, it comes from writer's subconscious feeling that s/he has to hype own words in order to wake up readers' interest. Perhaps if the process of publishing it wasn't so effortlessly immediate, so easy it becomes mundane? - ianf ⌘

"Overhype" is an understatement for someone who writes: "This book is the culmination of nearly twenty years of work that I have done to develop that new kind of science. I had never expected it would take anything like as long, but I have discovered vastly more than I ever thought possible, and in fact what I have done now touches almost every existing area of science, and quite a bit besides.... I have come to view [my discovery] as one of the more important single discoveries in the whole history of theoretical science." - Ionut

i couldn't get past #1 - Wolfram didn't kiss the ring, so he's going to get his panties all in a bunch? Please... Wolfram|Alpha is for academics/researchers and they probably don't want the input of "those who regularly cover search" just yet, or maybe they could care less about pleasing the 'bloggers' and 'reporters' and more about pleasing the end users (academics and researchers) ... - Chris Heath

Chris, Aaron, I pointed out that not contacting me could be me being big headed or sour grapes. If you feel it's all that they haven't "kissed the ring" as Chris put it, fair enough. But this just isn't for Wolfram Alpha. It's for any general search engine that's trying to come into the space and compete against Google. And the pattern is that this isn’t a good sign. - dannysullivan

Understood, this isn’t a Google rival. Except it’s a new paradigm they tell us directly, our “default browser” one review said & “could be as important as Google” said another. So yeah, people are going to compare it to a search engine. And if it’s not, then they need to set expectations. Unless they’re not worried about that. - dannysullivan

Matt, Bill Clinton and Accoona is a perfect example of the type of "big backer, nothing to do with search" thing I've seen. Jutta, yeah, "overhype" is probably unnecessary. Perhaps me trying to talk about hype above and beyond the usual commonplace hype. And thanks for the comments, everyone. - dannysullivan

Danny, you do great work, don't get me wrong on that, but i had a hard time getting interested in that post because up front you do mention that it might be sour grapes, but then go on to say that in order for Wolfram to get ahead they've got to come to you. Hey, I want them to give me a look at it too, and i'm a nobody - you're freakin' searchengineland.com! - anyways I look forward to your review of it when you do eventually get a chance to check it out. -- until then we're basically speculating, right? - Chris Heath

Chris, the way I read Danny's point is that if a search engine doesn't even know the influencers in the search space or ignores them, they're missing a vital chance to educate someone that could assess an engine and provide perspective. I've seen several generations of "Google Killer" hype, and Danny's article resonated with me. - Matt Cutts

Thanks for the perspective Matt, I get that point, just couldn't make it thru the post far enough to get to it, I guess. I have a feeling that Danny might still get a look at Alpha before the general public though. - Chris Heath

Stephen never called this a search engine and it isn't one. It's a knowledge engine because it gives you an answer. And with all due apologies Wolfram and Mathematica were significant before Google even existed and it's not like Stephen needs any validation for his work. Will wolfram alpha be any good? Don't know. But wolframs validation will come from a different community, not the search engine world - Deepak Singh

Deepak, that's kind of what i was getting at with my first comment about how they're probably more interested in feedback from researchers and academics, than search engine people. - Chris Heath

Chris, missed that on my phone. Quite right - Deepak Singh

Chris, totally understand my first point my be offputting. I don't mean they have to come to me. I mean if you launch a new search service, I expect someone who regularly covers search to know about it (me, others, someone!). But that alone isn't a killer thing. It's just one of several signals that can tell me if a service may have problems with adoption. - dannysullivan

Deepak, it's a common tactic for a new search engine challenger to say they aren't a search engine but a "knowledge engine" or "answer engine" etc etc. Classic tactic used again and again. But even if Wolfram isn't overtly trying that approach, they ARE being compared to Google. And respect to Wolfram, if they don't control that expectation, no matter how good they are to the scientific community, they may end up with a reputation of "failing" to beat Google. - dannysullivan

But a reputation among whom, Mr. Sullivan? I am a scientist, and I don't follow any blogs/people who write about google or search or any of that(I do follow Deepak), and I'm quite comfortable waiting until I can form my own opinion about it. - Mr. Gunn

I'll form my own opinion when I see it, too. I've said repeatedly "we'll see." But in the postscript to my article, you'll see some claims from Wolfram this is aimed at "average" people too. The reputation among those average people will probably be how does this measure up against the utility of Google. - dannysullivan

"It’s not that I have to be briefed — it’s more that if I don’t see anyone who regularly covers search talking about a service, that’s usually not a good sign." - What?! That's ridiculous. Bigheadedness aside, a sure sign to hype is to get a lot of people "in the know" talking about you. They are doing what they should do-- quietly focusing on being worth talking about (and hoping they are right). - Tony Wright

Danny, and another thought - wolfram might not care about adoption as long as it's useful. - Chris Heath

Danny, but Wolfram Alpha will never have the general utility of Google. Since it can only answer a question that can be represented as formal knowledge, what it can give you is unique, but you can never find out what someone's opinion is. It's not based on links, it's not based on what's popular and what someone thinks. By definition it's a knowledge engine. I am not sure it's going to work (I am cautiously optimistic) cause the fundamental problem is very hard (and it's not a natural language engine) - Deepak Singh

Also, Stephen Wolfram is a wealthy man, so it's not like this is a startup that needs to make a ton of money to be successful. - Deepak Singh

Interesting comments on Wolfram Alpha by Twitter user fredericl here: https://twitter.com/fredericl For instance: "don't think alpha will be a google killer - rather a wikipedia killer for vast majority of topics on wikipedia" - Sean McBride

Tony, they have plenty of people talking about them. Started back with the first review that came out, and then there have been a series of other ones. Those weren't quiet. Those people were deliberately briefed to spread the word. None of the reviews have been from people who regularly cover consumer search to a wide audience. Those closest we've gotten was Read Write Web getting a preview tonight. - dannysullivan

Deepak, even if he weren't wealthy, it doesn't mean his or any search engine needs to make a lot of money to be successful. Success is however you want to define it. A small service with a small audience is still successful by my terms. But if the stated goal is this is something the average searcher will turn to, then I'd expect they're hoping it will get substantial traffic. - dannysullivan

Sean, yes, more people who have seen it are pushing this is more likely to be a Wikipedia challenge than a Google challenge. That's still a Wolfram Alpha challenge, though -- Wikipedia I believe still gets most of its traffic from Google. Interesting to see if Wolfram ends up with static pages that can be spidered and listed in Google. - dannysullivan

agree in particular with 2 (using a biased sample of queries), 3 and 4 (if combined, e.g. if Ophrah says you are the next thing) and partially 5 (probably a shorttime effect), but 1 I don't quite get. - Amund Tveit

/article /author Frederic Lardinois /title Wolfram|Alpha: Our First Impressions /publication ReadWriteWeb /date 20090425 /url http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive... #nml - Sean McBride

Funny, this article appearing just at the time that I launched the beta of my little search engine http://lenzcape.com . Well, launching is a big word for a few blog posts from a developer. I guess I should do a self-assessment using Danny's points... - Rintcius Blok