Alphram (a better name for Wolfram Alpha) is almost upon us. Some quick thoughts about what is going on here:
- Google acquired Gap Minder a while ago but didn’t really understand where it could go. In speaking directly with the (very small team) that were developing it, it was clear that there wasn’t a big picture for its future.
- Now that Alphram is on the block, Google appears to be responding first with the public data stuff (populations, etc.) and secondly with their Google Squared thing.
- But – Google has traditionally avoided investing in rich interfaces. Just take a look at the population data interface from Google – not fun at all.
- Alphram is not about relevance, it is about disambiguation, data, inference and visualization.
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