The new Wolfram|Alpha “computational knowledge engine” is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while. My first impression was that this was just a big fancy calculator to help people solve NP-complete problems and complex differential equations and whatnot. Not that this wouldn’t be impressive in its own right, but it’s not exactly something I would use (though I could have used it back in college, when I was smart). The really cool thing about Worlfram|Alpha, though, is that it has a myriad of possible uses.

Want to see how popular your name is? Search for it.

Want to define a color scheme for your website? Look up your main color and see what matches.

Want to know the answer to life, the universe, and everything? Look it up.

This is way more exciting than Microsoft’s Bing (also launched recently). Go try it now.