Wolfram/Alpha is Launched

On May 16, 2009 Stephen Wolfram and Wolfram Research, Champaign, Illinois, launched Wolfram|Alpha, a computational data engine with a new approach to knowledge extraction, based on natural language processing, a large library of algorithms, and an NKS (New Kind of Science) approach to answering queries.

The Wolfram|Alpha engine differed from traditional search engines in that it did not simply return a list of results based on a query, but instead computed an answer.