search - Gizmodo

posts about #search more →
Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
Steve Ballmer Up Close, Sipping Coffee, Talkin' Bout Phones and Stuff
Clicker: Like TV Guide for Web Video
Bing Visual Search Could Be a Great Tool, Maybe, Someday
Zounds! There Be Five Incredible Apartment Search Tools Here
Microsoft VP on Chrome OS: “Most of What Google Does Is Defensive"
Ballmer Thinks Microsoft's Biggest Mistake is Search
Microsoft Bing: 7 Quick 'n' Dirty Tricks

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
11/11/09

In reply to Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
Did you say Bing? #wolframalphabing
Reply

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-TOAD
11/11/09

In reply to Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
Know what I want from Microsoft? An original idea. It seems like the more time goes on, the more companies like Apple and Google come out with neat products like iPods and Microsoft just kinda says
"Wow, that's neat. Let's steal the idea, we'll call it zune".
"Google's making money? Hey we should start a search engine"
"OS 2, huh? Looks neat, we'll call it Windows" #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards
11/11/09

@ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-TOAD: Brush up on your history a little. MS was in the search engine game before Google ever existed. (sources: [searchenginewatch.com] [en.wikipedia.org] [en.wikipedia.org] ). In fact, there were at least 16 other search engines that predated Google ( [en.wikipedia.org] ). So, one could argue that Google stole the idea from MS, amongst others following your logic.

The first MP3 player was made by Eiger Labs and was called the MPMan (source: [reviews.cnet.com] [en.wikipedia.org] [boingboing.net] ). In fact, the market had several different MP3 players before iPod came along. Apple rarely innovates technology, they tend to wait and synthesize the best facets of different products together into one user friendly and attractive device and it is something they do very well.

OS2 was co-developed by Microsoft and IBM ([en.wikipedia.org] ) and was built around MS-DOS, the DOS ( [en.wikipedia.org] ) system created by Gates and Microsoft. Granted, MS-DOS is preceded by Apple DOS by a year ( [en.wikipedia.org] ). The independent Windows OS was antecedent to Apple's OS, but the IBM/MS one preceded it.

I could go on and on, but don't feel like it. The thing is, tech companies constantly "steal" from one another because they see what customers like or what are good ideas and attempt to utilize them. Call it stealing or failure to innovate if you want, but you'd be flat out wrong. Go troll somewhere else about MS. Do a little research before opening your mouth about something that you don't know about. #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards was starred Nathan Obbards was unstarred

tucker
11/11/09

In reply to Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
I use Bing. Oh wait. No I don't. #wolframalphabing
Reply

tucker was starred tucker was unstarred

Nathan Obbards
11/11/09

@fucker: Who's got two thumbs and doesn't care? This guy. #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards was starred Nathan Obbards was unstarred

The guy who loves those Big-Ass-Tables
11/11/09

@Nathan Obbards: I get it... you purposely misspelled his name.... hahaha #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards promoted this comment

Nathan Obbards
11/11/09

@The guy who loves those Big-Ass-Tables: Who, me? I would never do something subtle and easy like that. #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards was starred Nathan Obbards was unstarred

The guy who loves those Big-Ass-Tables
11/11/09

@Nathan Obbards: Well Played Sir... #wolframalphabing
Reply

jepzilla
11/11/09

In reply to Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
Personally, I think Wolfram Alpha is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Perhaps even greater.

The ability to quickly whip up a query to answer some bizarre random question gives me a feeling of Godlike omniscience. It's almost like something out of Star Trek, where the computer was always solving complex problems for the crew and then I'd be watching this on TV wondering why they bothered with the useless meatbags at all, when the computer was obviously the smartest one there.

But still, I have to wonder... does anybody other than me really use it? #wolframalphabing
Reply

jepzilla was starred jepzilla was unstarred

chuckbass
11/11/09

@jepzilla: I use wolfram alpha a lot! I'm an engineering student, so I am commonly doing my hw in front of wolfram alpha.
And I love having it come up with quick answers to other things. And it's a great tool to look at stocks and economic trends.
It is honestly one of the greatest things on the internet and I think more people use it than you are aware - I am constantly catching classmates on it. #wolframalphabing
Reply

jepzilla promoted this comment Nathan Obbards approved this comment chuckbass was starred chuckbass was unstarred

Nathan Obbards
11/11/09

In reply to Wolfram Alpha Ends Up Where It Belongs: Inside Another Search Engine
Never have I been more tempted to make a "yo dawg..." joke. #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards was starred Nathan Obbards was unstarred

PregoNation
11/11/09

@Nathan Obbards: omg. As in "Yo dawg...I like you...Yo Dawg...I like you too man. Let's get married" #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards promoted this comment PregoNation was starred PregoNation was unstarred

Nathan Obbards
11/11/09

@PregoNation: More like, "yo dawg I heard you like search engines, so we put a search engine in your search engine so you could Bing while you Google" #wolframalphabing
Reply

Nathan Obbards was starred Nathan Obbards was unstarred

PregoNation
11/12/09

@Nathan Obbards: Hahaha! Equally hilarious. #wolframalphabing
Reply

PregoNation was starred PregoNation was unstarred

Cogito Ergo Bibo
11/10/09

In reply to Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
I may be the only dinosaur around running Boolean searches on Google, but I find that I nearly always get exactly what I want doing that. Boolean won't hunt down related terms, sure, but 99% of the time I don't need that. So to step forward, I stepped backwards. Boolean still rules. #googlecaffeine
Reply

Cogito Ergo Bibo was starred Cogito Ergo Bibo was unstarred

KeyserSoze
11/10/09

@Cogito Ergo Bibo: Chicken Boolean or Beef Boolean? #googlecaffeine
Reply

Cogito Ergo Bibo promoted this comment KeyserSoze was starred KeyserSoze was unstarred

Cogito Ergo Bibo
11/10/09

@beekerstudios: you are inane and stupid: No, I know exactly what you mean. Boolean doesn't give you "sorta like this, but not exactly that." It's a definite limitation.

@KeyserSoze: Mmm. Chicken-y Boolean goodness. Just like mom used to make! #googlecaffeine
Reply

Cogito Ergo Bibo was starred Cogito Ergo Bibo was unstarred

KeyserSoze
11/10/09

@Cogito Ergo Bibo: For a proper boolean chicken soup you need: broth AND chicken AND carrots AND veggies AND noodles.. #googlecaffeine
Reply

Gann approved this comment KeyserSoze was starred KeyserSoze was unstarred

AmishJohn
11/10/09

In reply to Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
It's gonna get better because they're gonna honor Rupert Murdoch's wishes and delist the NewsCorp empire? #googlecaffeine
Reply

AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred

moo083
11/10/09

@AmishJohn: He never said that they were trying to get delisted. He said that he wanted to make NewsCorp unsearchable. There's a big difference there. #googlecaffeine
Reply

AmishJohn promoted this comment moo083 was starred moo083 was unstarred

AmishJohn
11/10/09

@moo083: Actually, Uncle Rupie wants to get paid. As far as I'm concerned, he can get bent. Go to a NewsCorp site, and the robots.txt specifically allows Google's indexing, and even points to the sitemap. If he didn't want to be searchable, he shouldn't allow searching. He just wants Google to pay for regurgitating NewsCorps already regurgitated stories. #googlecaffeine
Reply

AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred

Hello Mister Walrus
11/10/09

In reply to Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
The question is, if Google became twice as effective, would we notice? It already gives me exactly what I want 99.5% of the time. (Like your mom, hey-yo!) #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies!
11/10/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: At half the cost.

Like your wife. #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred

Thorax707
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: With only a small side order of spam... like your mom. OH! #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! promoted this comment Thorax707 was starred Thorax707 was unstarred

OMG! Ponies!
11/10/09

@Thorax707: But not as prone to chafing.

Like your sister. #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred

AmishJohn
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: Or drooling.

Like your dog.

Waitaminute. #googlecaffeine
Reply

AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred

OMG! Ponies!
11/10/09

In reply to Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
But how does it stack up against Bing?
Reply

OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred

SuperTuna
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: Chanandler Bong! #googlecaffeine
Reply

elementary promoted this comment SuperTuna was starred SuperTuna was unstarred

elementary
11/10/09

@SuperTuna: Ms. Chanandler Bong #googlecaffeine
Reply

elementary was starred elementary was unstarred

PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: Bing is the decision engine, it decides what results you should read. It doesn't matter how efficient its search engine is. You must read whatever it tells you.
Reply

OMG! Ponies! promoted this comment Edited by PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: at 11/10/09 12:17 PM

OMG! Ponies!
11/10/09

@PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: : So what yer sayin' is that Bing is the decider. #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred

Kaiser-Machead
11/10/09

In reply to Google Search Is About to Get a Lot Better
This will be like kicking Yahoo! in the head before they can get footing, because their search hit results are already sub par by comparison. #googlecaffeine
Reply

Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred

RedEyeNinja
11/10/09

@Kaiser-Machead: who's Yahoo!? #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! promoted this comment RedEyeNinja was starred RedEyeNinja was unstarred

OMG! Ponies!
11/10/09

@RedEyeNinja: It's a chocolate drink not unlike chocolate milk. #googlecaffeine
Reply

OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred

incubushead
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: More Ovaltine please! #googlecaffeine
Reply

Mike Zuniga: That was Unexpected promoted this comment incubushead was starred incubushead was unstarred

Kaiser-Machead
11/10/09

@OMG! Ponies!: Shuddup and drink your cocoa-flavored whey juice. #googlecaffeine
Reply

Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred

met2art
11/10/09

@Kaiser-Machead: I'm Googling my Yahoo! right now... #googlecaffeine
Reply

met2art was starred met2art was unstarred

brobot - Beboptimus Prime
11/11/09

@OMG! Ponies!: eeeeewwww Yoohoo.... chocolate water.... eeeeewww

edit: spoken in a Stewie Griffin voice
Reply

Edited by brobot - Beboptimus Prime at 11/11/09 1:10 PM

fuchikoma
10/19/09

In reply to WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
OMFG...
I like WolframAlpha, which puts me in a minority among most people who have never heard of it... but there's no way I'd pay $50 for a mobile version of a website I can access with Safari anyway, that I can think of a use for once every couple of months, but could also be served as well by Google! #wolframalpha
Reply

fuchikoma was starred fuchikoma was unstarred

Adam
10/19/09

In reply to WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
I've never had the website give me any data that was at all useful, why would I pay for that? #wolframalpha
Reply

Xeno promoted this comment Adam was starred Adam was unstarred

Xeno
10/19/09

@Adam: You've never bothered to ask it anything that was useful to you then. #wolframalpha
Reply

Xeno was starred Xeno was unstarred

Adam
10/19/09

@Xeno: Well, I can't remember everything I've asked it, but usually it's easy calculations I just don't feel like figuring out. For example, "what is the mass of 250 u.s. dime coins" is a very simple question to piece apart. But all I get is "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure how to compute an answer from your input." I could ask it "mass of a u.s. dime coin" and multiply it by 250, but isn't the entire point of Wolfram Alpha that I don't need to do that? I've never had it do anything Google couldn't do better. Also, it's much slower. #wolframalpha
Reply

Adam was starred Adam was unstarred

Xeno
10/19/09

@Adam: Ahh, interesting that that didn't work. I asked it 1 can tuna + 2 slices bread + 1 tsp mayo and gave all the nutritional information of a tuna fish sandwich though. Trending say several stocks works well. Or comparing sports statistics. It's certainly not perfect but can do some great things. #wolframalpha
Reply

Xeno was starred Xeno was unstarred

puhsitch
10/18/09

In reply to WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
...I don't think that Wolfram is actually looking to make money through the App Store. You know what's really going on here?

Blog reader/Twitterererer: "What kind of crazy company would charge $50 for this?? They must really think they're something special. I don't know who Wolfram is, but I'm gonna go the web site and use their fancy service for FREE just to stick it to 'em!"

No one would be talking if the app were $1.99 (and no one would be buying it since it's not free). We all know that those guys aren't dumb -- and they know that it's the outliers that get the most attention. #wolframalpha
Reply

puhsitch was starred puhsitch was unstarred

nutbastard
10/19/09

@puhsitch:

yep - this is their 'balloon boy' so to speak #wolframalpha
Reply

nutbastard was starred nutbastard was unstarred

fleebailey33
10/18/09

In reply to WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
they have given out access to there API, i give it a week before someone makes one thats not official for free/cheap #wolframalpha
Reply

fleebailey33 was starred fleebailey33 was unstarred

Jamez
10/18/09

In reply to WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator
Considering it can be easily accessed via the iPhone's Safari browser, this app is just dumb. Sorry Wolfram Alpha team, either remove the mobile version of your site or make the app free (or at least better than the browser search engine and cheaper). Otherwise, you just make yourselves look stupid...which is the opposite of what your search engine promotes. #wolframalpha
Reply

Jamez was starred Jamez was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

Gizmodo Team

SUBSCRIBE TO Gizmodo

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment