Comments on: Google Beats Wolfram|Alpha On Its Own Turf

By: waltjones

waltjones — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:19:28 +0000

Monika,

Thanks, you made my day.

And, yes, I would like to discuss the education/mentoring thing. This is something that has been on my mind, but not knowing where or how exactly to get started. I'll send you a message on triiibes, and we can take it from there.

Cheers!

Walt

By: monika

monika — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:56:31 +0000

wow. becky was right – nice site man.

if you ever feel the need/desire to help education with your incredible talents – i know of a high school in colorado that would welcome you. in the form of: a skyping guest speaker; use of your tutorials; an expert to grade projects; mentor through blogging;…..i'm assuming you could do it all.
thanks for the inspiration.
i teach math – so i globbed onto your wolfram insight.

By: waltjones

waltjones — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:53:55 +0000

Yes, latitude toronto, florence works nicely. And I agree with Evan, it doesn't appear to handle regions (by returning a range) at all. Latitude california attempts to look for cities named California.

By: mollydot

mollydot — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:38:21 +0000

Yup, its outside-USA geography seems to be fairly crap.

Try latitude toronto, florence instead

By: Evan Donovan

Evan Donovan — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:42:24 +0000

From my tests, it looks like Wolfram Alpha currently does best with latitude/longitude queries in the U.S. (where you can enter a city, state). Outside the U.S., rather than entering the name of a region or a province, you have to enter simply the name of a famous city, like Montreal or Rome. Still, I agree with you that there's room for improvement here.

By: waltjones

waltjones — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:03:34 +0000

Mario, Very interesting. Thanks for the link.

By: Mario Madden

Mario Madden — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:50:37 +0000

GrokLaw compares Google and Wolfram/Alpha from a terms of use perspective and finds the latter wanting, too:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200905...