Abstract
Wolfram|Alpha (W|A) is a search engine in some senses, but not in others. People do use W|A to search for responses to their questions. Additionally, W|A often runs queries, or searches, through its databases. However, what W|A does not search for information containing words that match or are similar to a provided phrase. Instead, Wolfram|Alpha makes new contact with the history of librarianship, using the curation work of library professionals and domain experts to map words into functions describing the query, attempting to encode the question’s intent.
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To understand the role of disruptive innovation plays in business competition, consider reading Clayton Christensen’s original books on the concept:
Christensen, C. M. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Christensen, C. M. and Raynor, M. E. (2003). The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth Businesses. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
To understand the sociological forces that organization formation imposes on information technology practice, consider reading this classic paper by Wanda Orlikowsky:
Orlikowski, W. (1992). The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of structure in organizations. Organization Science, 3(3):398–427.
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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Cassel, J.B. (2016). Wolfram|Alpha: A Computational Knowledge “Search” Engine. In: Lee, N. (eds) Google It. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6415-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6415-4_11
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