ReadWriteWeb have posted screenshots of Wolfram Alpha in action
. Do go and have a look, it’s great that you guys are all going to get to try it out soon as well. As you will see, it is not at all like Google, and I think that the happiest people in the world will be the researchers and scientists for the most part. In that respect, it is indeed in my opinion as important as Google has been for us all.
Wow – yes, it is super different. I’ve already been using other search engines as well as Google (Duck Duck Go and Kosmix), and I will definitely be adding WA to my info seeking arsenal (off topic:anyone remember infoseek?).
Google offers me so much more than search, it is a whole productivity tool, and allows me to work far more efficiently. Plus the Google App engine is really exciting and good things are coming out of there.
People often underestimate how hard it is to make a search engine and how difficult it is to work with any human language dependant application. I like to think we’re still in the dark ages because I am looking forward to far more developments and so many exciting things in this area.
There has been a lot of hype, and due to the fact that so many “groundbreaking” search engines have been deployed only to fail spectacularly, we are rightly sceptical. Never be too hasty to judge, always test it and then make up your mind.
Wolfram is the result of years and years of research. It’s not like Google. It’s very clever. It’s highly useful. I like it. I hope you do too 
Here’s the screencast:
This is absolutely amazing. I would like to see what Google will do to match this. Finally a serious competitor (although in their own angle, Google is still very universal).