Wolfram Alpha signs deal with Bing - Rumour

Computational search engine Wolfram Alpha is supplying data to Microsoft’s Bing search engine as part of a licensing deal, according to online reports. The claims seem to contradict analyst predictions that Wolfram would tie-up with Google.

Unlike conventional search engines, Wolfram Alpha uses natural language processing to decipher the meanings of queries, rather than merely matching words to web pages. The site was touted as a ?revolutionary? new way to search the internet when it went live in May, but the original buzz quickly died down. Traffic to the site has fallen by 82% since its launch period and many users are said to have difficulty understanding the presentation of Wolfram’s results.

Users say one of Bing’s main strengths is to present information in different ways depending on what it is about. Travel search results appear differently to image search results, for instance. Analysts suggest Bing could use its deal with Wolfram to create a new science specific category, pairing Wolfram’s data with its own presentation. If the project is popular, Bing could license more of Wolfram's data to provide it with more categories of search.

Meanwhile, Wolfram Alpha says it has been developing its site, adding new knowledge domains, writing more than 2m new lines of code and identifying bugs. ?We have spent the summer steadily enhancing Wolfram Alpha, before people start using it more intently in the fall,? says physicist and software developer Stephen Wolfram, who developed the engine.