ADVANCEDPROJECTS
128 MAY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE387
Wolfram Alpha:acomputationalengine
Search engines are exactly that: mechanisms tosearch apool
ofinformation for specific information. How theydothat
varies, but the basic theory is by checking as many external
web pages as possible to find the most relevant results. The
process is rather parasitic, and is based on the assumption of
crowd-sourcing answers: the answer to any question is
probably online,and themost trustworthy answer is probably
correct. Assessing the ‘trustworthiness’ of an answer or siteis
where the algorithm wars occur.
Wolfram Alpha (seewww.wolframalpha.com)always aimed
to do things differently.Ratherthan search the whole web,it
searches only asmall pool of highlytrusted external sources.
Alarge library of built-in data and algorithms are added to the
mix, before Wolfram Alpha applies ‘dynamic computations’ to
finally produce itsresults in acomparable timeframe to a
conventional search engine.
Wolfram Alpha is capable of answering questions directly;
it passed our Easter test well, returning the actual
answer rather than alink, even if the
presentation wasn’t quiteasslick as
that of Bing’s or Google’s. Wolfram
Alpha excels when it comes to
anything factualand specific, and
the range of topics has expanded
hugely.You can ask forthe calorie
count of aslice of cheesecake,dates
of historical figures, mathematical
problems, engineering modelling and
all kinds of other trickyquestions.
However,while Wolfram Alpha performs well when answering
questions of fact,whenitcomes to opinion, it’s rather hopeless.
Tryasking it ‘what is the best iphone’and it struggles to understand
what an iPhone is, let alone offer sourceswhere you might see a
discussion of price versus features and offer subjective or nuanced
advice.Then again, enter the same question intoAsk and it’s almost
as bad, yielding awhole page of advertising before showing a
genuinely useful link.
⬆Wolfram Alpha can answer standard questions or solve equations
engines have toolstospecifically search forimages, videos,shopping
comparisons and so on. Keen shoppers will preferGoogle and Bing for
their general searches, as theybothhaveshopping toolsbuilt in; again,
Ask disappoints, with no additional search toolsatall.
If you’re determined to ditch Google but still want aGoogle-like
service,Bingisyour best bet. If tree planting or privacy is more
important, opt forEcosia or DuckDuckGo respectively.Ifyou’d
preferthe convenience of Bing but are somewhat worried about
privacy,safety or filtering inappropriatecontent, you’ll need to
createanaccount and adjust the Settings. Use SafeSearch to filter
adult content, and the Privacy settings to disable tracking and delete
stored personal data.
Finally,remember to updatethe default search engine of your web
browser.Each browser does this slightly differently,and the process
can change with updates, so it’s best to search online forthe most
up-to-dateadvice.
BEYOND SEARCH ENGINES
Asearch engine is ageneral-purpose tool,but sometimes you need
something with more precision. What exactly that is depends on the
task in hand; sometimes you need ascrewdriver,other timesaspanner.
Reverse searching is the general term forwhen you have a‘thing’
and want to know more about it. Shazam (free,iOS and Android) is
agood example: you’re listening to the song but want to know the
singer and the title.
If you’ve got an image and want
to know its source,TinEye is a
specific reverse-image search
service.You can upload an image or
copyits URL (right-click on the
image and select CopyImage or
CopyAddress) and it will search the
internet looking forother instances.
However,while TinEye can be
useful, both Bing and Google have
built-in reverse image searching,
called Visual Search and Search by
Image respectively.Bing’sicon is
always present (the square-ish
icon to the right of the search bar),
while Google only reveals Search
by Image (the camera icon) once
you’ve performed asearch.
We preferBing’sVisual Search
results page forclarity and
⬆Binggives the most Google-like experience,and you can adjust the privacy settings by creating an account presentation, but Google and
