Smarter Search Engine With Artificial Intelligence

The latest and biggest internet revolution for a generation will be unveiled this month with the launch of software called Wolfram Alpha, that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before.

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And this revolutionary new web software could put giants such as Google in the shade when it comes out later this month.

Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Computer experts believe the new search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the internet. Wolfram Alpha could prove just as important as Google. It is really impressive and significant and in fact it may be as important for the web (and the world) as Google, but for a different purpose.

What are the wider implications exactly? A new paradigm for using computers and the web? Probably. Emerging artificial intelligence and a step towards a self-organising internet?

Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as "how high is Mount Kilimanjaro?", but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts.

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly". If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Kilimanjaro to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. It will cross-check and provide the answer.

Dr Wolfram, an award-winning physicist who is based in America, added that the information is "curated", meaning it is assessed first by experts. This means that the weaknesses of sites such as Wikipedia, where doubts are cast on the information because anyone can contribute, are taken out. It is based on his best-selling Mathematica software, a standard tool for scientists, engineers and academics for crunching complex maths.

Worldwide network: A brief history of the internet

1969 The internet is created by the US Department of Defense with the networking of computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.

1979 The British Post Office uses the technology to create the first international computer networks.

1980 Bill Gates's deal to put a Microsoft Operating System on IBM's computers paves the way for almost universal computer ownership.

1984 Apple launches the first successful 'modern' computer interface using graphics to represent files and folders, drop-down menus and, crucially, mouse control.

1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates the world wide web – using browsers, pages and links to make communication on the internet simple.

1996 Google begins as a research project at Stanford University. The company is formally founded two years later by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

2009 Dr Stephen Wolfram launches Wolfram Alpha.

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* Internet answer engine - Wolfram Alpha - computational knowledge engine