Wolfram Alpha Partners With Bing

Seems like a good deal for both of them. I don’t see the integration yet when I try their suggested examples, but Microsoft’s announcement claims the features are coming in the “next few days”. I thought this was curious, though:

Microsoft’s initiative and interest in Wolfram|Alpha began earlier this year. In fact, there is an interesting story that circulates within our walls around some of our early discussions with Microsoft.

Highlighting examples of Wolfram|Alpha to the most senior executives at Microsoft, Stephen Wolfram entered the query “2^2^2^2^2”. Upon seeing the result, Bill Gates interrupted to say, “What, is that right?”

A profound silence fell over the entire room. Stephen replied, “We do mathematics!”

Bill Gates still attends meetings like this at Microsoft?

★ Wednesday, 11 November 2009