Microsoft on Wednesday announced the immediate availability of Bing search results that are bolstered by data from the ambitious Wolfram|Alpha project. Started in May by British scientist Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram|Alpha aims to "make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone." The results will be seen in a variety of search types, Microsoft specifically calls out such things as nutritional information and other health-related topics.
"Wolfram|Alpha's knowledge, computed from expertly curated data, will enrich Bing's results in select areas across nutrition, health, and advanced mathematics," a Wolfram|Alpha blog post reads.
"The notion of creating and presenting computational knowledge in search results is one of the more exciting things going on in search (and beyond) today, and the team at Bing is incredibly fired up to bring some of this amazing work to our customers," a posting on the Bing blog reads.
The Wolfram|Alpha-based health results build off of previous Bing "decision engine" efforts around flight information, local weather, and sports scores and stats, Microsoft says. Imagine a situation where you want to research which has more protein, steak or chicken? Or more vitamins, orange or kiwi? (Both of these examples are from the Bing blog.) With Wolfram|Alpha-powered Bing searches, such queries will be more easily answered.
Users interested in testing these kinds of queries will see Wolfram|Alpha results appear in Bing over the next few days in the United States, Microsoft says.
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