Wolfphram|Alpha: A Brief Introduction

On May 18, 2009, British computer scientist Stephen Wolfram officially launched a new search product called Wolfram|Alpha (WA). This launch was preceded by months of speculation and hype online about exactly what WA would be and how it would compare to Google and other search engines. This article will explore the basic features of WA, show some example queries and results, and discuss the usefulness and limitations of this new tool.