Electronic Resource Review

I don’t often include search engines in this blog but there is something about Wolfram Alpha that intrigues me.  Self described as a computational knowledge engine, it is more than any search engine that you might use to search across the web. 

I have to admit that I had trouble figuring out how I would use it when I first tried the site.  Not having a mathematical mind (Yes Mom, you were right, I should have studied harder in high school), I don’t often turn to computations unless there is a need.  But then Wolfram Alpha is more than computations.

For example, searching for ibm,microsoft,oracle will provide you with a comparison of the three companies that includes the latest trades, fundamentals & financials (see the image below for a list of the information you can find, recent returns, relative price history, performance comparisons, correlation matrix, projections, and mean-variance optimal portfolio.  Interesting.

Click image to view larger format

On top of finding it useful, while reading the 3 Geeks post, Wolfram Alpha Lets You Build Your Own Personal Widgets, I was excited to learn that you can now build widgets to make searching easier.  While it seems that WordPress doesn’t support this yet, you can click Compare Public Companies to see the widget I built.  If you think it is useful, I would appreciate a rating.  Well, even if you don’t, it would still be great to see it rated.

See the Money & Finance category to find other widgets that are business focused.