And another thing

Rory Cellan-Jones has a superb blog covering some of his work as the BBC’s technology correspondent.

In this recent piece which aired on BBC World he looks at the nascent battle between the newly launched Wolfram Alpha “computational knowledge engine” and the internet search engine giant Google.

If this is a genuine competition then we might be on the threshold of a contestable market! Google accounts for over sixty per cent of internet searches and it has found a business model that successfully monetises the search engine technology (my own small business makes extensive use of Google analytics and online advertising and I can confirm how effective it is.)

“Wolfram Alpha is designed to answer complex search queries by returning a single result. Unlike Google, which searches the entire web for the keywords contained within a search query and then returns thousands of relevant web pages, Wolfram Alpha aims to understand the question and return the correct answer by mining its vast database of information and statistics.”

Inspired and designed by an old Etonian .... does this have legs? Does this take us closer to a symantic web? Keep in mind that it is in the very early stages of development and that the project will benefit from collaborative work from thousands of people around the world.

Have a look at Wolfram Alpha and test it with some economics and business inquiries!

BMW - Bavarian Monopolist at Work [24 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Game Theory and Business Economics [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Government Intervention [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on the Price Mechanism [16 May 2012]
Improving Evaluation Skills in Economics Exams [16 May 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: African Human Development Report 2012 [15 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: 10 Key Revision Topics for EdExcel [7 May 2012]
Exam Technique for Economics - Weesteps to Evaluation [5 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Key Diagrams for Business Economics [17 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Managing the Global Commons - Limits to GDP [15 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Mini Documentary on Financial Instability [15 Apr 2012]
Ukraine Hotel ‘Bandits’? [12 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Market Structures [11 Apr 2012]
Government Intervention in the Energy Market [11 Apr 2012]
Football Clubs to Pay for Negative Externalities [11 Apr 2012]
2012 Economics Revision: Ways to Improve your Paper [9 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Market Failure in Private Health Care [8 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Contestable Markets [8 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopoly and Economic Welfare [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Productivity Improvements in China [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Scale Economies, Technology and Prices [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: EU Imposes Further Price Cap on Mobile Phone Companies [29 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Highest and Lowest Paid Jobs in the UK [26 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Competitiveness [8 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Teaching vacancy - Economics & Business Studies, Reed’s School - Cobham, Surrey [19 Jan 2012]
Revision Presentation: Economics Evaluation Skills [10 Jan 2012]
Exam Advice: 10 Ideas for a Better Economics Paper [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Natural Disasters and their Economic Impact [7 Jan 2012]
AS and A2 Economics - 10 Ways to Improve Evaluation [4 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Prezi on the Economics of Negative Externalities [2 Jan 2012]
Resources on Keynes and Hayek [27 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopoly and Duopoly in Bus Markets [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Patent Wars- A Touchy Subject for Apple [16 Dec 2011]
Introduction to Neuroeconomics - Fusing Psychology with Economics [16 Dec 2011]
Rory Sutherland at Zeitgeist [1 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Stephen King - Great Article on Macroeconomics [22 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
MON€Y PANIC$ – A Visualisation Challenge [18 Nov 2011]
LSE Lecture: Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow [15 Nov 2011]
LSE lecture: Darwin economy [13 Nov 2011]
Economics Resources - Week Ended 6 November 2011 [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination in Action [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Ofcom gives stamp of approval for flexible pricing in mail [21 Oct 2011]
Is happiness the right measure of social progress? [20 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Fat tax: Denmark [5 Oct 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
NHS spending good, private provision bad? [5 Sep 2011]
Mixing with the Nobel Economists [4 Sep 2011]
Toilet rolls, soap and climate change [1 Sep 2011]
John Kay on the future of Economics [26 Aug 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: GDP per person since the credit crunch [19 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Price of Football [2 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
7 Reasons why Teachers should Blog [7 Jul 2011]
Six Global Trends Shaping Business Strategy [15 Jun 2011]
Shaping the Future - Blanchflower on the UK Economy [7 Jun 2011]
Poor Economics - Esther Duflo at the LSE [3 Jun 2011]
AS Macro: Preparing for Unit 2 (May 2011) [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AQA A2 Economics - European Context [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition Policy [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Entry Barriers in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Market Structure, Conduct & Performance [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Consequences of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Outsourcing [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
Review of “Adapt” by Tim Harford [9 May 2011]
Dominos Pizza turns to Behavioural Economics [5 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
Video Clips on the Chinese Economy [1 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
Economics Recommended Reading - Summer 2011 [26 Apr 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: The China Effect [26 Apr 2011]
Wiki Revision: A to Z on Monopoly [23 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Twin Deficits [22 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Public and Private Goods [21 Apr 2011]

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