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Google didn’t take long to unveil its plans to crush the yet-to-be released fact engine, Wolfram|Alpha. Yesterday, at Searchology, Google showcased new features for the world’s most popular search engine, some of which are available today but one of which is specifically designed to clobber Wolfram|Alpha before it gets its land legs.

Now available are additional search options that allow you to filter by video, forums, reviews and perhaps more importantly by time. Google is trying to duplicate Twitter’s ability to tap into live data to spread news faster than any other media outlet by allowing for filterable results by the past day, week or year. Although not quite up-to-the minute like Twitter, it’s close and will surely only get better. (more…)

In exactly five days, the shroud will be lifted from Wolfram|Alpha, ushering in a new dawn in searching the Web. Well, maybe, maybe not.  Stephen Wolfram, child prodigy and creator of the popular computational software program Mathematica, will be bringing his prowess of all things nerd to the world of search engines. And as with any search engine created by a particle physics genius, his latest endeavor is being touted as the Google killer. A bit overhyped? Definitely. Revolutionary? Possibly. One thing is clear: Wolfram|Alpha will not be a Google killer.

It will serve as what many are calling an answer or fact engine or what Wolfram himself has labeled a “computational knowledge engine.” Built on the computational power of Mathematica, it’ll probably be a damn good one: Twine founder Nova Spivak described his experience with it “like plugging into an electronic brain.” (more…)