"Search 3.0"

The much talked about new search engine, WolframAlpha, went live this weekend.  It's worth a look.  It's a different type of searching, the details of which I won't bother with here as you can read about them all over the web. 

Anyway, it's definitely useful in the classroom, in research, and when you're looking for a straight answer.  It's best for cold hard facts, so getting used to the types of search queries that work might take a bit.  It's a little more picky about search terms.  After you've tried out a few searches, check out the examples of searches that work well on WA - there's a visual gallery as well as examples by topic.  

Google is set to launch the Labs version of Google Squared later this month.  Similar yet different, the release is likely timed to steal some of the thunder of WA, which was getting much hype as the latest Google-Killer (right).  Guess that's the beauty of competition working for us, eh?  Anyway, two new tools for the kit.  Great for students and research uses as we don't have to weed through all the junk results Google can sometimes spit out.